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THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

A HISTORY AND AN INTERPRETATION

Books by
W. O. CARVER

MISSIONS IN THE PLAN OF THE AGES

THE BIBLE A MISSIONARY MESSAGE

THE SELF-INTERPRETATION OF JESUS, ETC., ETC.

THE COURSE OF
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

A HISTORY AND AN INTERPRETATION

By
WILLIAM OWEN CARVER

M

Professor of Comparative Religion and Missions,

Southern Baptist Theological Seminar jr,

Louisville, Ky.

YORK CHICAGO

Fleming H. Revell Company

LONDON AND EDINBURGH

Copyright, MCMXXXH, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 851 Cass Street
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 99 George Street

.r\

1014659

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

THE history of Christian missions has never been written, and can
never be written. This happily becomes every year less possible.
An outline of its main course can be made. Such is the present
attempt. It is here undertaken on a scale somewhat more ambitious than
any preceding volume. Every effort has been made to maintain a true per-
spective and to observe just proportion in handling the vast materials,
covering innumerable interests and aspects.

I know nothing about missions that I have not learned, and most of what
I have learned, I gleaned from books. It is quite impossible to cite the
works upon which I have drawn, from hundreds of volumes studied through
thirty years of teaching the subject. The biblipgraphies will indicate the
sources from which I have drawn most extensively, although the bibliog-
raphies will include only the more important works in each case. The large
and carefully prepared volumes on the various countries have naturally been
my chief reliance. Through the years I have been a student of The Mis-
sionary Review of the World and the International. Review of Missions, but
unfortunately I have not kept notes of articles from which I have gained
much.

It has been indicated in the title that this does not profess to be merely
a record of facts. No history is. No one writes without being interested
in his subject, and his interest must determine his selection and use of the
facts. This puts upon any writer rigid obligation to select carefully and to
interpret accurately. I have tried to do this. I cannot hope to have suc-
ceeded more than relatively. 0So one will be more conscious of failures in
this than is the author. I have striven to deal without prejudice among the
various national and denominational interests involved. Here I shall not
escape criticism. Few know the work of other denominations as well as
they do that of their own. Perhaps all of us are apt to think the work of
our own organization is more important than that of any other. With a
large Christian sympathy I have sought to know all the forces and to appre-
ciate all in relation to the total movement for the Christianizing of the
world. Missionaries will be apt to think that much more should have been
said about their special countries, fields or stations. I beg all to seek to
place themselves in the position of the author and try to understand his
limitations.

In such a mass of facts and dates errors will occur, for I cannot hope to
escape what I have found in all other volumes dealing with missionary
history.

Criticism and suggestions are cordially invited. They will be appreciated
when they are sympathetic, and will be helpful even if they are censorious.
In any case, they will help in improving a second edition, should the author's
prayerful hope be realized, that his historical outline will be of real service
to those who are interested in the world task of Christianity.

It is my belief that the best apologetic for Christian missions, now so

6 AUTHOR'S PREFACE

seriously under fire, is knowledge and understanding of the facts of mission-
ary history, in their relation to the history of the race. There is a large
element of interpretation in this work. With most of this I know informed
missionary opinion will be in agreement. Where this is not the case, the
views presented are submitted as an honest effort to see things as they are.

Among obligations too extensive for detailed mention the author would
express thanks to the publishers of various volumes from which it has
been found desirable to quote at important points, occasionally somewhat
extensively.

For valuable assistance in making the Index I am grateful to Mr. John L.
Riffey, presently Fellow in Missions in the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary. The Index is intended to be general, not exhaustive.

w. o. c.

Southern Baptist Seminary f
Louisville, Ky.

CONTENTS

i. THE GROUND OF MISSIONS 9

ii. THE BACKGROUND . . -.16

in. THE FOUNDING 27

iv. THE FIRST CHAPTER OF MISSIONARY HISTORY: NEW TESTAMENT

MISSIONS 35

v. FIRST PERIOD: PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE (A. D. 29-313) . . 45
vi. SECOND PERIOD : EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION (A. D. 313-1000) 58

vn. PERIOD off SPORADIC MISSIONS: FIVE HUNDRED LEAN YEARS

(A. D. 1000-1500) . . . . . 77

vni. PERIOD OF INNER REVOLUTION AND OUTWARD EXPLORATION

(A. D. 1500-1792) . , . . . .91

ix. EFFORTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS off THE FOURTH PERIOD ... 97
x. PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA . . . .115

xi. CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 138

xn. INDIA 157

xin. CHINA 175

xiv. THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 201

xv. THE NEAR EAST 221

xvi. MALAYSIA 232

xvn. NEGRO AFRICA 234

xvin. ABORIGINES OF THE PACIFIC 257

xix. CATHOLIC AMERICA . 266

xx. AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE 278

xxi. MISSIONS TO JEWS . . 287

xxii. NORTH AMERICA 292

xxiii. HITHERTO : A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD . . 300
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR REFERENCE AND FURTHER STUDY . . . 313

_ * O 7

THE GROUND OF MISSIONS

CHRISTIAN missions are rooted in the Christian concept of God.
They are continued and perpetuated by reason of the Christian ex-
perience of God. It is not possible to hold steadily the true Christian
idea of God and not to undertake to share that idea with all other men.
Christianity has from the beginning been a missionary religion. It has not
been uniformly and consistently missionary. Its missionary history, with its
variations, lapses and revivals, has run parallel to the history of the adher-
ence of the professed followers of Jesus to His interpretation of God in His
character and in His relation to the human race. Whenever and in what
measure the Church of Christ has been Christian, it has been missionary.

CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIAU/Y MISSIONARY

Christ's followers have not always been consistently loyal to His revelation
of God and His passion for mankind. With all it's variations, it remains
true that Christianity has been missionary throughout its history. In this
respect it differs from every other religion. Two others are to be reckoned
as missionary. Buddhism had something of missionary impulse and activity
from its beginning. Its great missionary period began some three hundred
years after its origin. Its missionary career was quite remarkable, spread-
ing the faith throughout a large part of Asia and winning a very extensive
following. Its spread was mainly in one general direction unto one type of
race temperament and of culture. After reaching Japan and establishing
itself there, Buddhism reached a period of arrest in its missionary impulse
and activity; and this was not revived until the nineteenth century. Then
its new period of aggressiveness was directly due to stimulation produced
by the impact of the Christian missionary movement on the peoples who
adhered to the Buddhist faith. It is not pertinent or necessary here to enter
upon an explanation of the fact that for half its history Buddhism has mani-
fested very little impulse and no passion for imparting its message and its
advantages to others. It is to be observed in the light of the facts that the
missionary passion is not inherently and vitally necessary to the religion.
In Buddhism it is optional whether one shares his blessings with others, and
peculiar merit is involved for the undertaking. With Gotama, effort to help
others to his salvation was an after-thought, and might have been omitted
from his own life and his programme. With Jesus, the whole race of men
was the objective, and no one can be His true follower who is indifferent to
the needs of any man, or who neglects to give His Gospel to every man.

The other missionary religion is Mohammedanism. Here we find a much
more consistent history of aggressiveness. The urge for impartation is more
powerful and has had far more consistent expression than in Buddhism.

io THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

In the case of Mohammedanism it is not possible honestly to overlook the
fact that the great eras and areas of its expansion have been invariably
connected with political ambition and material exploitation. It would be
unfair to charge that the motives of Mohammedan missions have been wholly
sordid or exclusively secular. There have been some genuinely unselfish
souls who devoted themselves to carrying the gospel of Allah and his
Prophet to their fellow-men for humanitarian reasons. Even in connection
with military and secular expansion it is not necessary to question the exten-
sive operation of religious motives, any more than it would be right to deny
such motives to the monks and priests who are associated with the colonial
expansion of Spain and Portugal and with the deadly exploitation of native
peoples by adventurous gold seekers and empire builders who boasted the
Christian name. Yet in all fairness it has to be recognized that Moham-
medanism has expanded only in connection with some political ambition or
secular endeavour, and that it has maintained a steady evangelistic effort
only where it was supported by the continuous secular backing. Moham-
medanism has no distinctively and purely missionary organization. It has
never entered any country for purely religious reasons. In India it entered
in a campaign of conquest and built an empire. It remains a religion and
grows in its following in rivalry and exclusiveness.

Also, as in the case of Buddhism, Mohammedanism has thus far shown
itself eager for and capable of sustained and successful efforts only within
certain types of culture and of race temperament. Neither in their essential
concepts nor in their history have these two religions disclosed an imperious,
irresistible or constantly renewing missionary character.

In the course of our studies we shall find abundant evidence that mission-
ary motives within Christendom have not been unmixed, nor missionary
practice free from damaging and discounting 1 admixture of secular interests
and forcible methods. There is this to be said of Christianity: that always
mixed motives are seen to be disloyal to the essential nature of the religion,
and that any other than spiritual methods, which fully recognize and respect
the freedom and voluntary response of men, are to be adjudged unholy, and
so adjudged by the standards of Christianity itself. The condemnation of
wrong methods and vicious practices has come from its own conscience and
been based upon its own principles. Its correctives have arisen from within
its own life. Its revivals have been produced by its own spirit. Christianity
is most true to itself when seeing and correcting its own faults and failures.

Missionary manifestations in any religions other than these three have been
so exceptional, so sporadic and so little sustained as to make unnecessary any
consideration of them in a general survey of the missionary history of relig-
ions. The exalted missionary ideal of Mahavira was never put into operation
by Jains, except in limited areas of India. Zoroaster's followers at no time have
taken with practical seriousness the revelation reported in some of the sources
that Ahura Mazda required his worshippers to proclaim his will to all men.

THE URGE OF UFE

All life has in it the urge of expansion. Without this it would not be life.
This is so obvious in the spheres of zoology and biology in all forms of

THE GROUND OF MISSIONS 11

plant life and animal life that we are very apt to overlook the fact that life
itself is not explained in those descriptions of its manifestations in the phys-
ical sphere which constitute our sciences of living forms. Life is assumed
by the sciences and its most characteristic qualities are likewise taken for
granted and not explained. We have extended our biological concept, by a
figure not by any exact analogy to the various group expressions of
human association. Here, also, in the sphere of spirit and in the various
groups of men, life is expansive. We think of dead civilizations, decadent
cultures, outgrown political systems. We divide religions into dead and
living religions. Christianity originated in a fresh and powerful experience
of life. It sprang out of what professes to be a unique coming of divine life
into human experience. The purpose of this coming was a new advance in
the life of the human race. Jesus declared: "I am come that they may
have life, and may have it abundantly." Life, light, love ; faith, hope,
brotherhood; these are the terms which express the original concepts of that
religion which grew rapidly into Christianity, and which has manifested
from the start a spirit of expansion and impartation which nothing could
resist or restrain. The language of conquest which came so largely into the
Christian vocabulary in the days of the Crusades has remained until the
present day; but it is not truly characteristic or representative of the spirit
and the proper methods of Christianity. Christianity's true vocabulary is
the language of life, its method is reproduction and regeneration, its attitude
helpfulness and sharing. This inflowing of divine life into the stream of
human history, which is the characteristic aim and experience of Christian-
ity, constantly brings about what the New Testament Scriptures call regen-
eration. This regeneration, renewal of individual lives with new motives,
new standards and new ideals, inevitably produces what the Apostle Paul
repeatedly calls a "new human race." For that is the definite meaning of
his phrases in Ephesians (several different phrases) and in that passage in
2 Corinthians 5:17, wherein he declares that "if there is any (single) man
in Christ there is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all
things are made new." It is the undertaking of Christ through Christianity,
by means of individual reconstruction to produce a new order of human life,
a new human race. The old order is to be transcended, and in this way,
substituted by a new order. In this same connection Paul lays it down as
the definite constraining and consuming business of all those who have been
made alive through Christ to devote themselves to the ends of this enterprise
of remaking humanity along the lines of divine righteousness. The supreme
life, giving life unto the world, flows ever through the Christian Church into
the world of humanity. Such is the ideal and objective of the Christian
religion; such also its actual history, notwithstanding shameful failures and
humiliating corruption and sin of Christians and their churches.

THS HEART OF GOD

The heart of God as revealed in Christ inevitably leads on to all men.
The heart-hunger Of men calls for the best, and God is the best. Jesus
announced that God's love had given Him to the world that the world
should be saved through Him by getting eternal life through faith in Him.

12 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

" This," He said in the end, " is eternal life, that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ as the one whom thou hast sent." He had
come that men " might have life and life abundant." So He said repeatedly
that those who receive them that He sends, receive Himself, and thus receive
God Who sent Him. He came to give men God and the life of God. Hence
Christianity means that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself, not reckoning their transgressions unto them, and having com-
mitted unto us the message of the reconciliation." It is the consciousness of
this heart-hunger of all men that must ever constrain those who have fed on
the " Bread of Heaven " to go to their fellow-men with the supreme blessing.
Only in this spirit do we have Christian missions unmixed.

THE UNITY OF THE RACE

The unity of the human race was a central teaching of apostolic Christian-
ity, as it is now coming to be a cardinal doctrine of modern humanitarianism.
A unit race calls for unitary possession of the real goods of humanity. If the
human race is one, its progress and development must be along the lines of
acquiring and appreciating the best things and the highest values by all sec-
tions of the race. One God and one human race can mean nothing else than
one religion, in any thought of matured life for humanity. Moreover, it is to
religion that we must look for giving to men in the different sections of human-
ity a convincing sense of their oneness with all other men in the one human
race. The unity of the human race is an ideal to be made actual by persistent,
determined, sacrificial effort in the face of actual differences, divisions, con-
flicts which stubbornly resist the forces for unification. Religion alone can
provide the conviction of possibility and of duty for realizing racial unity.

In religion alone is there the urge to racial unity and the compelling con-
viction that drives on to devising ways of making the ideal unity actual.
Only those who have the sense of fulfilling an eternal purpose in a growing
history will have the patience, the persistence, the faith and hope that can
face the facts of the divisions, conflicts, hatreds of a fractional and factional
humanity, and devote themselves to a gospel of unity, fraternity and har-
mony. Only when we know that God and we are fellow-workers can we
give ourselves to such a task. It is Christianity which reveals the divine
ideal of human unity. It is Christianity, in spite of all its weaknesses and
failures, that has contributed most to the growth of unity thus far. It is
Christianity that now most strongly supports the vision and inspires the effort
to work for the unification of mankind. As religion provides the ideal, so also
it is the hope of realizing unity. It is only as men are one under God that
they will become one in brotherhood. The religion which is founded on this
teaching and which draws its life from the Christ Who came from the bosom
of the Father to be the light of the world cannot be other than missionary.

The function of religion is to adjust man to his spiritual environment.
In the highest sense this means to establish man in active relationship with
God as his Father. There are all stages of this experience from the crudest
impulsive animatism up to the most exalted relationship of growing person-
ality with complete Personality. Primarily and ultimately, religion performs
its function for the individual man. In religion he defines his world, locates

THE GROUND OP MISSIONS 13

himself in it and seeks to adjust himself to it. His world may be very
small, limited alike in extent and variety of its content. Yet his religion
consists in the recognition of his world and his response to it. If there is
reality in the spiritual environment, then there is something of actual rela-
tionship between the man and the spirit of his world God. Here is the
substantial ground and justification of every man's religion. In its measure
this is revelation. God manifests Himself, man becomes aware of God, their
converse is religion for man.

Like every other experience of man, his religion must grow. As he
grows, his world grows. His interpretation of his world must grow. The
impact of his world on him varies and enlarges. In terms of religion, that
is to say God is progressively revealing Himself to the man as the man
interprets himself, his world, his God. In the earlier stages of human
experience no sharp distinction if any distinction at all is drawn between
the physical and spiritual. When the distinction does come to be made it is
religion that leads and enables man to make right adjustments of facts and
forces within the physical realm, to unify in thought and to use in practice
the materials and forces of nature. Especially is it religion that leads man
to subordinate the physical to the spiritual. Religion gives primacy to
personality and interprets the material as existing for the personal. Thus
cultures are produced, men grow and history progresses. Values are appre-
ciated and created.

Men live in groups. They have group life, group interest, group ideals,
group methods, group consciousness. If, as we have said, the individual
lives in a spiritual environment, so also does his group live in that environ-
ment. Religion functions for the group as it does for the individual. The
development of group concepts modifies the idea of God, and influences the
interactions between God and the group. Religion thus functions as the
ground of obligation, the force of conscience, in the individuals in their
group relationships. Tribal religions are one of the outstanding features in
the study of the history of religions. As the tribe constitutes only a stage
of the development of human society, so also tribal religions must be capable
of expanding into something larger and higher or they must be replaced,
when the tribes unite into nations. Tribal gods cannot be gods of a nation.
If God is unitary in nature and in His relation to the human race He is the
essence of the God-concept in all definitions of the divine in tribal and local
gods, and so also in the national god. In this sense the God of the nation
may become the God of the nations. If God has truly been in the God-idea
of tribe and of nation, then tribe and nation must expand in their religious
concepts into the more comprehensive idea of the universal God.

Similarly there are geographical limitations to men's ideas of God. There
have been gods of the sea and gods of the land; gods of the mountains and
gods of the plains; gods of forests, rivers, stones and trees. One tendency
of all these limited interpretations of God in our environment is toward
exclusiveness. While people remain diverse and exclusive, religions are also
not only diverse but antagonistic. But when nature comes to be conceived
to be one and its various phases as varying phenomena of the one nature,
local and functional deities become attributes and activities of the one God;

14 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

antagonisms recede and exclusiveness begins to be overcome in comprehen-
sive unity. God has destroyed the gods.

We have come to a stage in the world's ongoing where at least the more
advanced representatives of humanity recognize that co-operative working
toward unity must overcome and take the place of antagonistic exclusiveness.
In all departments of life there are approximations, or at least aspirations,
toward this ideal of unity. It was inevitable that religion should share in
the fragmentary interpretation and expression of life so long as the race
remained broken and divided. But it should be the function of religion to
inspire and lead men to transcend their limitations, to overcome their pro-
vincialisms, to accept their unity and enter into helpful fellowship. In the
measure in which religion is guided by true insight and inspired by genuine
revelation it will operate in the direction of expansion of that sympathy
which transcends exclusiveness, opposition, hurtful rivalries. If there is
any religion in which the spirit of universalism is inherent and essential, that
religion will tend to become actually universal. Its followers in whom its
spirit becomes incarnate will of necessity become missionary in their feeling
and in their activity. Its prophets and leaders will urge that it must be
universal, and plan to make it so. A religion which is potentially universal
cannot wait for impersonal social evolution to make it the possession of all
men. It must proceed to give all men the benefits which it contains. Human
progress is achieved by conscious effort. Social evolution is effected by
control, by purposive effort under inspiration of ideals. True religion is the
gift of God. It is in a sense, to be sure, the discovery and achievement of
man. In the deepest sense it is God's gift to man. God's gifts to some men
involve a stewardship for all men. The gift of redemption and of the highest
ideals of humanity must constitute a gospel. The possession of God's
supreme gift must make any individual, any church, any group the bearer of
that Gospel to other men. The need of man, the glory of God, and the
nature of the religious experience all combine to drive one forth to tell to
all men what God has revealed and what one has found in God.

It is because Christianity has these universal values along with a convic-
tion of their supreme worth to all men that Christians must be aggressively
missionary. Christ in us is the hope of God's glory in humanity, the hope
of humanity's redemption and realization in Christ. Such in outline is the
ground of Christian missions.

CHRIST MISSIONARY

All these considerations found concrete definition in the life and teaching
of Jesus Christ He embodied them and made them a Gospel. He inaugu-
rated a definite enterprise for the declared purpose of promoting these ideals
which He termed the Kingdom of God. In that Kingdom all national <Jis-
tinctions were to be transcended, righteousness was to obtain in all relations,
service was to rule out all self-seeking, God would be glorified in a perfect
brotherhood. For this He laboured, for this He died, and in resurrection He
proved the power of His ideal and the sanction of God upon His programme.
That He would set forth this enterprise in a Great Commission was so
natural as to be inevitable. Yet the Commission was given with unique

THE GROUND OF MISSIONS 15

originality. Not once, but repeatedly did He lay upon His followers this
high duty, this holy commission. Beginning on the evening of the Resur-
rection Day He "gave commandment unto the missionaries ('apostles')
whom He had chosen . . . appearing unto them by the space of forty days,
and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God" (Acts i :2f.).

On the first appearance to a group in an upper room in Jerusalem He
expounded to them from the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the
Psalms 'all things which had been written concerning him,' and then
summed up the divine programme as including the items : " that the Christ
should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning from Jerusalem; ye are witnesses of these things; and behold I
send forth the promise of my Father upon you ; but tarry ye in the city until
ye be clothed with power from on high " (Luke 24:46-49).

Some two or three weeks later, on a mountain in Galilee, He met His
missionaries ('apostles 1 ) again, by appointment, with more than five hun-
dred present. Here He announced that all authority had been given unto
Him in heaven and on earth; and in view of that authority and by way of
establishing that authority on earth, He commanded : " Go ye therefore, and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo, I am with you all the days unto
the consummation of the age" (Matt. 28:18-20; I Cor. 15:6).

At the end of the forty days following the Resurrection, with about one
hundred and twenty present on the Mount of Olives, refusing to discuss with
them a question concerning the Kingdom primacy of their own (Jewish)
nation, He said : " But ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come
upon you; and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea
and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had
said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received
him out of their sight" (Acts 1:6-9).

The ground of Christian missions is found in this oft-repeated commission
of the Christ. Not that this enterprise rests in any merely formal command.
Christ gave no formal command. Such was not His way. In these resur-
rection statements He made clear the meaning of His life, the goal of His
enterprise, the programme of His religion, the proper aim of His Church
and of every follower, the power through which His work is to proceed to
consummation. His Church exists for bringing all nations into the Kingdom
of God by means of discipleship. Here is the only religion whose only
authorized organization is for the propagation of the Gospel of the reign of
the only God in the total life of the human race. The ground of Christian
missions is in the nature of the religion, in the programme of the Christ, in
the need of humanity, in the eternal power of God. The oneness of God and
His ethical holiness, the unity of human nature, the rational interpretation
of human history, the idealism and aspiration of the human heart at its best,
the methods of human progress all unite in urging that the religion which
claims to have the Son of God for its Saviour and Guide shall share this
experience, this faith, this hope with all men.

II

THE BACKGROUND

THE Bible is a missionary book. Back of Christianity lies the history
and literature of the Old Testament which have been accepted these
nineteen hundred years as organically pre-Christian experience and
documents. The Old Testament and the New are definitely related and
properly constitute one literature. The great New Testament writers were
fully justified in claiming the Old Testament saints as brothers within a
common experience. The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob was
the God of Peter and John and Paul and Barnabas, as He was the God and
Father of Jesus Who perfected the revelation of Him which had been par-
tial but genuine in His predecessors. The Old Testament leaves off with an
obvious, confessed, proclaimed incompleteness and expectancy. It has no
complete message. Christianity, on its side, has no historic explanation
without taking account of the Old Testament and the history it embodies.
The Old Testament is a unique literature. Other literatures are religious,
quite as truly so as the Old Testament. Yet the Old Testament is distinctly
different from all others. For one thing, it has the same God throughout
the history which it records, interprets and promotes, and God dominates the
movement which it records. It is frankly and freely recognized that the
people of the Old Testament had other gods, that their objects and forms of
worship were alike varied, mixed, often corrupt. The ideas and history
of the peoples who were called by the name of Jehovah and claimed as His
worshippers had in many respects a life which parallels that of other people
of both our times and other times. The Old Testament writers not infre-
quently speak in terms which suggest a lack of complete understanding of
the monotheistic idea. Still, back of all the speakers and through them all
there is no fair mistaking of the dominant concept of one God Who refuses
to be merely the God of this one people. The character of the God of the
Hebrews is from the beginning such as to make it impossible for Him to be
merely the God of the Hebrews, as also it is such as logically and progres-
sively to cause the Hebrews to have no other god.

There are all types of religious literature to be found in the Old Testa-
ment. If one approaches it superficially or merely by the analytical method
it may seem to him that there is lack of unity and harmony. There are
things which on the surface may seem to be not only inadequate but in some
instances impossible of approval. Approached from the standpoint of the
literature through which an ethical God is progressively revealed, the Old
Testament yields itself steadily to the interpretation of one theme. That
theme, once apprehended and clearly grasped, follows right on through into
the New Testament and constitutes the entire Bible a unity. This is a unity
not to be gained and maintained by artificial and literalistic interpretations

16

THE BACKGROUND 17

combined with figurative accommodations and allegorizing absurdities; but a
unity of growing revelation with normal human reactions. These human
reactions are always imperfect, often very disappointing and sometimes
shockingly revolting. It is not difficult, with a rational approach, to discover
the theme which gives the unifying subject for the whole and which fur-
nishes the key to the nature of the Bible as the book of a religion. The
Bible records the struggle of a spiritual and ethical monotheism to get itself
adopted and practiced by a people. The progress of this religion is in this
different from the evolution of religion as usually found. Hebrew religion
has its similarities to others, but its position among religions is due to its
difference; and that difference is just this, that the religion is seeking a
people and not the people evolving a religion. It should be kept in mind
always that we have in the Bible the book of a religion rather than a
religion of the book, although rightly understood these two need not suggest
contradiction or inconsistency.

The Bible is in no proper sense a history of the human race or an account
of the races and tribes of men. It is not a history of the religions of men,
nor even an adequate history of one religion. Its entire story of the human
race up to the time of Abraham is condensed into eleven brief chapters.
These chapters seem obviously intended to set the scenes for a drama of a
special revelation which God begins in Abraham and completes in Jesus,
interpreted as the Christ of God and the Redeemer of humanity. We have,
very summarily, the beginning of the human race, its entrance upon a course
of sin, ignorance, strife, superstition, diffusion, corruption. Then a new
beginning in what turns out to be a futile attempt to develop man under an
advanced idea of God, through Noah. All this leaves us a human race in
whom God is represented as being profoundly interested, but without secur-
ing from man any response which is either satisfying to God or adequate
for a worthy history of humanity. With the stage thus set, the drama of a
redemptive revelation begins with. Abraham. With his call, recorded in
Genesis 12, we have a statement of the purpose of God in calling this man
and his descendants. This purpose is emphasized by emphatic restatement
at the outstanding crises in the life of this patriarch, and by corresponding
emphasis of repetition to his successors, Isaac and Jacob. So far as this
theme is concerned, as the subject of the Old Testament and a statement of
the purpose of God, the faults, failures and sins of the patriarchs are of
secondary importance. These are frankly and freely recorded. Their record
shows the need even in these men of revelation and of the grace of God.
And it is the story of this grace of God that the Bible gives us. The first
eleven chapters of Genesis are prefatory. The theme is stated in the twelfth
chapter. God has set about blessing all the families of the earth. From this
point onward this is the theme treated. It comes to a climax in the universal
commission of the Risen Christ and culminates in the Revelation picture of
a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

THE THEME o? THE

Until Moses and the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai, we have the Hebrew
people, but no Hebrew nation. The nation is constituted and organized

i8 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

under Moses. The story of that constitution of a nation does not begin
with the Covenant of the Ten Words, as seems almost universally to be
assumed. The foundation of the moral code is recorded in the twentieth
chapter of Exodus. In the nineteenth chapter there is a brief special mes-
sage for which Jehovah is represented as having called Moses into the
mountain, and with which He sent him back to deliver this first of all to the
people. This initial message embodies the divine ideal for the nation. It is
more fundamental and, by so much, more important than all the moral,
social and liturgical laws that follow. It stands to the laws of Israel and
to the life of Israel in the same relation which the Declaration of Inde-
pendence holds to the Constitution, legal codes and political life of the
American nation. In this brief message Jehovah sets forth the fact of His
call and providential preservation of Israel up to this time. Through these
hundreds of years He has brought them " to Himself." It is not to national
life nor to a national home that He has been primarily drawing them ; it has
been unto Himself as their God and into a purpose which He will embody
in them. He has conditionally selected them as peculiarly His " from among
all nations " and here He is very careful to affirm that this selection is not
exclusive, "for all the earth is mine." What, then, is His purpose? What
is the ideal which He sets before them and asks them to accept for their
own, the ideal to which He will give corporate expression in the Hebrew
people and nation if they will yield themselves up to Him ? He says : " Ye
shall be unto me a nation of priests, a nation dedicated." As it is the func-
tion of a priest to represent a congregation in the worship of God, so in the
plan of God this nation of priests are to lead " all the earth," which is His,
to the worship of the one holy God.

The history of the Hebrew peoples, recorded in the Old Testament, is a
very peculiar history, a record unique in the annals of the nations. That
uniqueness can be readily explained if the record is interpreted as being
the history of the divine movement for incorporating in the people whom He
has chosen this idea of the universal worship of the holy God, by all the
people of the world. The selection of material for the history and its
handling by the various historians thoroughly and throughout fit into the
controlling idea of recording the measure of failure and of success in devel-
oping this idea of one God for all the peoples. As history, the Old Testa-
ment is the story of the incarnation of an idea in the life of a people. So
far as the great body of the people is concerned, it is a record of failure.
Yet the idea did not fail. In so far as the Old Testament preserves the
idea and pauses at its close with prophetic look into the future, it is the
record of the unconquerable grace of God in His redeeming purpose.

HEBREW RELIGION AND OTHER RELIGIONS

In spite of the large measure of failure on the part of Israel to incorporate
the concept of God and to proclaim the purpose of His grace, it yet remains
true that these people did perform a great missionary function in the life
of the ancient world. Their defects, their crudities, their defections, apos-
tasies and failure, we are in the habit of measuring from the standpoint of
an ideal which the Old Testament itself constantly holds before us. But for

THE BACKGROUND 19

that ideal, in the face of which we are forced to feel deeply the far-off follow-
ing of the people of Jehovah, we should rather compare the religious ideas
and attainments of the Hebrews with those of contemporary peoples under
other religions. Such would be the normal field of comparison. On such
a basis, Israel would stand high for moral idealism, for the concept of deity
and for spiritual insight. Nor must we overlook the fact that the baser
ideals and practices and the lower forms of worship and of life correspond
directly to the substitution by the Hebrews of deities, liturgies and sacrifices
which belong to other faiths and other peoples, rather than worshipping and
obeying Jehovah in His appointed ways and works. Israel is judged ad-
versely not for falling below other peoples and nations, but for failing more
consistently and fully to rise above them. It is when they follow the ways
and worship common in other religions, instead of the laws God gave
them and the ways of worship prescribed by His prophets, that they fall
under condemnation of critical students of religion. Religious amalgama-
tion and syncretism combine with a certain liberalistic eclecticism to give
us never a perfect reflection of the ideals which are represented to come
through God's revelation and properly to belong to the system of religion
which His spokesmen are seeking to establish and promote.

In the highest prophetic messages and poetic visions of Israel's greater
religious leaders we meet with interpretations of religion which in their
very nature logically involve and lead on to inclusion of all men in their
worship. In these messages we have not only general and implicit, calls to
all men to the worship of an ethical, holy God, Who is God alone; but we
have in varied and numerous forms explicit invitations and challenges to
men of other races and all races to unite in this worship of Him Who alone
is God and Saviour. It is true that the recognition of this wideness of
God's mercy and the invitations which are extended to other peoples are
often marred and rendered less effective by the obtrusion of the idea that
even with international worship of a common God the Hebrew people are
to remain in a position of favouritism while other peoples are to share in
their blessings upon condition of humble subjection to the elect race. Even
so, it is not possible to resist the impression that these higher religious ideals
did in different ways spread abroad and enter as a leaven into the religious
thought of peoples of various systems of religion. In the days of the widest
extent and highest recognition of the national life of the kingdom, under
David and Solomon, and later in the best periods of the kingdom of Judah,
when the position among the nations was at its best and when their influence
was most widespread, the worship in Jerusalem did influence the minds of
the more spiritual among all the surrounding nations. In the hymns, an-
thems and prayers of the temple worship we find expressions of broadest
sympathy, of the most exalted claims and of the most definite and friendly
invitation and challenge to other peoples to worship Him Who alone is God.
Also there are definite predictions of a coming unity of mankind in religious
experience and in common worship of the God of all.

The greater prophets are shot through with expressions of this wider
outlook. To be sure, the outlook varies greatly within the messages of any
given prophet ; but with the greater prophets we may frankly say that the

20 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

characteristic religious note which they sound is one which inevitably
means universalism in religion. The folly, futility and pathos of idolatry
and superstition are set forth with great earnestness and are climaxed with
definite assertions of God's common attitude toward all peoples and of His
earnest claim of all and His offer of redemption to all. In preaching one
God Who is holy, ethical, ever-present and definitely interested in the experi-
ence and destiny of all peoples, these prophets were already actively engaged
in a missionary undertaking which in spirit is one with that of the apostles
of Jesus. Definite comparison of the religions of men is invited and under-
taken; and this often not at all in the interest of the glorification of one
religion above others, or the Hebrew people above other peoples, but ex-
plicitly in the interest of God's redeeming concern for all peoples. Through
the evangelical Isaiah, Jehovah calls for. the assembling of all nations and
of the representatives of all religions for comparing the various religions
in their teachings, their history and their results. He relies upon His people
to give witness to His sovereignty and His salvation. His reason for this
claim to the recognition and worship of all men is that he knows no other
God and Saviour, and wishes to extend His saving sovereignty over all.
It is for this purpose that He has declared His way, demonstrated His
truth and called His people and preserved them (43:8-13). The poems of
the Servant of Jehovah in Isaiah 40-50 are all dominated powerfully by this
universalism. Jehovah's Servant is to " redeem Israel " at all cost of sacri-
fice, service, and testimony. But it is altogether too light a thing " to raise
up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel." God's ideal
and pledge is that His Servant shall be Jehovah's "light unto the nations,
even his salvation unto the uttermost parts of the earth" (49:5-8). In all
the messages of assurance and hope to Israel in the second section of Isaiah
(chs. 40-66) this universal outlook is maintained, ever leading the vision
beyond all bounds of race and nation, and encompassing all in the worship
of the one ethical and saving God, when in a common fellowship, " the time
will come when Jehovah will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall
come and see his glory." He " will set a sign among them ;" then such of
them as see this sign and " escape " from lower religions and standards He
" will send unto the nations," even " to the isles afar off that have not heard
his fame nor seen his glory." There, he says, " they shall declare my glory
among the nations." The result will be that out of all nations these mission-
aries shall bring as " their brethren " those who come to make oblations to
this saving God. Of these converts Jehovah will make priests and Levites
guides in worship with no distinction between them and the Jewish
priests and Levites. It is then declared (66:18-21) that Jehovah keeps
always before Him as ideal and objective "the new heaven and the new
earth which I will make;" and that He keeps before Him always also this
spiritual " seed " by means of which He will carry on this regeneration of
man through all the earth.

Two of the prophets are definitely missionary prophets. To be sure Jonah,
in the story of his mission to Nineveh, is himself wholly lacking in the
missionary spirit. It is all the more striking that he is by the compulsion
of providence driven to express the wider mercy of his God to a people who

THE BACKGROUND 21

were particularly hateful to the prophet at the moment, because of the
menace which they held for the security and existence of his own nation.
The real meaning of the Book of Jonah is that the God of the Hebrews
rebukes and rejects the narrowness and exclusiveness of the people to whom
He has committed His oracles and His worship. He will rather use them
to bring all nations to repentance that He may preserve them. In the case
of Daniel we have God and the prophet in entire agreement. iSot only was
Daniel's prophetic life lived wholly in an alien land and as one of a captive
and subjugated race, but his entire ministry is represented as having been
discharged in the courts of heathen kings. Through him God came to be
recognized by four world rulers in succession as the supreme God Who was
constructing an everlasting kingdom in the midst of world empires which
are represented as rising and falling under His providential control.

THE POST-EXILIC MISSION otf THE JEWS

The ministry of the four hundred years of the Dispersion, following the
captivity, constitutes a definite link in the chain of the development of the
purposes for a universal religion; and is a direct preparation for the begin-
ning of Christianity. The Captivity itself marks one of the most notable
triumphs of religion in the course of human history. Normally, the failure
and fall of the Hebrew kingdom would be interpreted as the failure of their
God and would mark the downfall and the death of their religion. In this
case the usual order was reversed. The religion was not only preserved
but was purified and exalted and the God of the Hebrews was interpreted
with more of ethical and spiritual truth than had ever before been His for-
tune. The prophets of the period of the Captivity were led to interpret the
catastrophe as God's own doing and not the triumph of military power or
the ascendancy of a superior deity. In the interest of His character as God
He sacrificed the expectations of His people and their confidence in Him as
their patron and protector. Refusing to be their guardian in apostasy, He
made them, without intention on their part, to be the bearers of His message
to mankind. The vast majority of the Hebrews, of course, never returned
to Palestine. They mingled among the nations. They could not fail to
carry into the thought of all the world into which they went at least some,
of course varying, measure of the religious ideas and idealism which had
wrought themselves into their constitution and religious thinking. It is
impossible to measure the influence on the religions of Asia of this indirect
permeation of the exalted religious ideas which had come to definite state-
ment only in the records of Israel's religion. If the Judaism of the period
from the Captivity to Christ had gained much from the experiences of the
Captivity and from the rigid morality and spirituality of Zoroastrianism,
that religion also must have taken heavy toll of the great prophetic messages
of the Hebrews. Other religions in less measure shared in the Hebrew
heritage.

We know quite definitely that the Jewish colonies in all the important
centres of the Graeco-Roman world became lighthouses for the ever-increasing
number of earnest men and women who were turning from the darkness of
the various paganisms in the search for the light of a higher and nobler

22 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

faith. These " God-fearers," whom we meet in connection with every syna-
gogue of the early Christian missionary work, constituted a preparation
which goes a long way toward explaining the marvellous success of these
first preachers of the new Gospel. By the same token they testify to the
success of these Jewish colonies as missionaries of a higher faith. The
translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek language was not pri-
marily intended for purposes of propaganda. The Septuagint did, however,
become the Bible version of the Jews throughout the world. From them it
passed over inevitably into the hands of great numbers of other nationalities.
That there was extensive call for these Scriptures is indicated by the
further fact that they were translated into no fewer than a dozen languages
in all.

In dealing with the religion and literature of the Hebrew people we are
studying what in its best expression is definitely proclaimed, in each stage
of the history, to be the missionary purpose of the God Who was revealing
Himself in that history. The Hebrews were everywhere too apt to think
of their revelation as being to, and for, themselves, whereas God is seen
ever to be insisting that it is intended to be a revelation through them to
other people. One of the chief sources of the continued failure of Christian
people to appreciate and to understand the Old Testament is this same way
of thinking of it as the literature of the religion of this one people. We
can never understand the Old Testament until we make our interpretation
to turn upon the thought that the Hebrew people and literature were de-
signed as a medium through which the universal God was approaching all
His people throughout the human race. Thus interpreted, the Old Testa-
ment leads us definitely up to the New. We have not " two dispensations."
Least of all do we have one God of the Old Testament and a different God
of the New. What we actually have is different stages in the revelation
and application of the redeeming grace of God; and a persistent determina-
tion on His part to incorporate this redeeming grace in a people who will
become its bearers and will produce the fruits of His righteous reign over
_all men.

Paul was absolutely loyal to the principles of the divine purpose in human
history as taught in the Old Testament when he declared in his address at
Athens that God "made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the
face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons and the bounds
of their habitation; that they should seek God, if haply they might feel
after him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us; for in
him we live, and move, and have our being." It is only in line with His
historic intention and in fulfillment of His providential control of all peoples
that God, Who had overlooked times of ignorance and so had continued in
existence nations that were steeped in superstition and idolatry, " now com-
mandeth men that they should all everywhere repent ; inasmuch as he hath
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the
man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all
men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Paul rightly claimed that
in his function as missionary to the non- Jewish world he was a true Jew
and was serving the God of his fathers. God had ever claimed all the

THE BACKGROUND 23

peoples as His; had asserted His control over them all; had insisted that
His righteous Servant would not fail nor be discouraged until He had set
justice in the earth, so that the very isles should wait for His law. The
universalism of the Christ is the unchanging Gospel of the God of the
whole Bible.

CHRIST THE FUI^IM/MENT OF AM, RELIGIONS

If Christianity is justified in offering itself as the religion of all men in
the claim that God has so provided in His purpose and in His control of
all nations, then the religion of Jesus Christ ought to prove a fulfillment of
other religions and not of the Hebrew religion alone. Such it actually
does prove to be. Justin Martyr taught, in the third century, that " natural
Christians " among all peoples were seeking God only to find Him in Jesus
Christ. It is as desirable as it is possible to find in all the historic religions
of mankind ideas, hopes and aspirations that lead on to God as Saviour and
satisfier and that find fulfillment in Christ that find in Him release and
new beginnings. Here, however, we must seek facts and not weave theories
out of enchanting fancies. Organized Judaism did not find its realization
in Jesus as its Christ and make glad transition into the fuller and realizing
faith. The system of Jewish religion forced the separation of Christianity
from itself, and the two have continued with divergent histories. It is not
possible to claim that organized Christianity is the continuation of organ-
ized Judaism. In the realm of spiritual experience and spiritual influence
the continuity is found. The Christian organization supplanted the Jewish
organization as the bearer of the good message of God's love, grace and
righteousness to men. The Christian Church has been a defective and
often an ineffective bearer of the saving life of God among men, yet it
has, however imperfectly and unfaithfully, been the messenger through whom
the living God has especially carried on the approach to humanity which
one may witness all the way from Abraham to Jesus.

It is this inner urge of God reaching out redemptively and progressively
through human life that has made the Church missionary and must keep
it so.

No more than in the case of the Jewish priests, scribes and elders may
we find the official Church of any other faith leading its worshippers to
surrender the ancient forms and substitute the Christian Church for the
institutions which history and tradition have produced for them. What we
see in them all is the need of fulfillment. Their literatures confess it, their
social structures proclaim it by a thousand ills unrelieved through grinding
centuries^ their seeking souls sigh for it in halting and hesitant hope, their
prophets call for it in challenges of spirit above the forms that hold men
without advancing them. To men of all faiths in which they have sought
God, Christ comes as the answer to their souls. God meets seeking men in
Christ everywhere.

We do not, in simple fact, find in the literature of any other religion a
persistent principle of spirituality and a dominating pledge of redemption
such as constitute the characteristic unity and progress of the Old Testa-
ment. There is nowhere else the same preparation for the Gospel which

24 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

we find in Jewish history. We do find in them all the voice of God
speaking great truths to the souls of men, great moral maxims to be the
foundations of character, ethical ideals that enrich life and promise larger
hope. All these hold people for the coming of God in the Gospel of His
Son to bring deliverance and to set men's feet in the ways of peace and

progress.

There is no other religious literature which can constitute with the New
Testament an organic whole as does the Old Testament; no other religious
history whose essential interpretation is realized in the genuine religion
founded by Jesus of Nazareth and developed by the interpretation of Him
as the Christ of God. Still there are in all of them elements that give
evidence that God has not left Himself without witness while "in gener-
ations past he suffered all nations to walk in their own ways." He has at
least manifested Himself far enough for the message of Christian mission-
aries to be " good news " that they are " to turn from these vain things (of
idolatry and low forms of worship) unto a living God, who made the
heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them is."

STEWARDSHIP OF GOD'S GIlTS Of GRACE THROUGH AU, NATIONS

There is no explanation, in reason or in religion, for the claim (Acts
14:15-17) to a superior revelation of the one God to the Hebrew people as
compared with other peoples save that which the Hebrew prophets and
Scriptures themselves give. And it is the same explanation which the
Christian prophets and Scriptures give. It is this: That all God's gifts
are committed in stewardship to be transmitted to others. To receive
from God is to be made a messenger of God. Abraham was made to know
God in order that all the families of the earth might be blessed. Israel
was brought to the true God that all the earth might know that it was
Jehovah's and come into His fellowship. The Christian Church exists for
the purpose of seeking and saving the world, even as its Master came to
seek and to save that which was lost. It exists in order that the Kingdom
of God may come on earth, when the will of God will be done as in heaven
so on earth, and this because God's name will be hallowed in all the earth
as the Father Who is in heaven. The Christian Church's prayer is ad-
dressed to " Our Father." The " our " must inspire and express the heart's
outreach for every man who prays in all the world, until he, too, can say,
" Father," as he prays to the one God.

It is not alone through their religions that the nations function in the
background of Christian missions. God's control of all the peoples of the
whole earth is asserted by all the greater interpreters of Israel from Moses
to Daniel. His ownership interest in all is preached by prophets, sung by
poets, chanted in the liturgy of worship and heralded by antiphonal choirs
in the worship of the great feasts of the temple. His purpose to save them
all impartially is a cardinal principle of the revelation as it grows from the
call of Abraham to the clear detail of Micah and Isaiah.

It was not the Jews alone who built a highway for the coming of the
King. Every progressive people played a part. What we see in the
preparatio evangelica that culminated in the inauguration of Christianity

THE BACKGROUND 25

with Pentecost and its world-wide projection in apostolic history we may
equally see in the whole course of its progress, with particular application
in each new beginning of the mission of Christianity in the course of his-
tory. It is a commonplace of historical interpretation that Rome and
Greece equally with Palestine set the scenes and provided the factors for
" the fullness of the times " when God sent His Son and set upon the era
of making universal the reign of His grace. All races have made or are to
make their contribution to the unified race which God is producing through
the Christian enterprise.

For the coming of the Christ and for His projection of His undertaking
the Greeks were used primarily for intellectual preparation. Not that they
alone thought or that culture was their only line of service^ but that in this
sphere they were foremost. Christianity emphasizes and develops human
values. Its message requires certain ideas of human worth. The Greek
sophists turned from physical nature to man as the basal fact in philosophy.
Socrates centred upon the moral nature as the key to human meaning and
exalted conscience as the voice of God in man his daimon. The great
dramatists, with their portrayal of the moral principles as determinative in
history and destiny, shared with the philosophers in exalting ethics and in
inoculating the Greek and Roman world with a scepticism that undermined
the crass non-moral character of the mythologies and theogonies. They
were the ethical prophets of the Greek people. Plato voiced the longing of
the religious heart for some ideal man to show mankind the way of life.

The Greeks carried human speech to its highest perfection as a medium
of personal expression and contributed their language of beauty and accuracy
to the Graeco-Roman world as the universal vehicle of culture and of busi-
ness. It had a vocabulary and a grammar marvellously fitted for religious
universalism, idealism and ethical challenge; and it came to this perfection
just when the break-down of the Greek culture was emptying these words
and phrases of religious content. Here were golden vessels emptied and
ready for the rich content of the Christian faith and hope and love, into
which Jesus and His followers poured their experience and revelation to
be carried as the message of life to all. The Greeks taught men to think,
overthrew for many the heathen systems of religion, and left unsatisfied
man's need for GocL

The Romans unified the world in an empire which they taught men to
call, in the Greek language, "the inhabited earth" (oucou/ttewj). It was
easier to grasp the meaning of the terms of unity and universalism which
are characteristic of the mind of Christ when men of many races, tongues
and cultures were bound and held together in one political and economic
unity. At the same time the need could be felt for some principle and
power for uniting variant human groups more vital and humane than
political force. "Thus it came about that the universal religion was born
into the universal Kingdom."

The imperial attitude toward religions was one of toleration for all exist-
ing religions, prohibition of all agitating or disturbing proselytism and
prohibition of inaugurating any new religions without government author-
ization. Under this system, in the general conditions of the time, oppor-

26 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

tunity for dispassionate comparison of religions was afforded. Adherents of
all religions would come together in Rome, and in other important cities.
There was widespread questioning, decay of antiquated and inferior systems,
much indifference to religion. All this seemed to open the way for a vigor-
ous, vital faith with striking elements of novelty.

An era of peace within the empire and with external peoples, both directly
and by various indirect influences, favoured attention to spiritual interests.
At the same time human nature's abuse of peaceful conditions resulted, as
so often it does, in material prosperity leading on to luxury, lewdness, ma-
terialism, oppression. Even so there was for thoughtful minds a demonstra-
tion of man's need for a truly redemptive religion.

Rome's internal administration provided facility, security and encourage-
ment for travel, with its resultant interchange of ideas. The marvellous
roads and their policing by the Roman soldiery; the varied and extensive
commerce; the lure of curiosity and cultural interest combined to produce
a movement to and fro never surpassed in human history until the nineteenth
century. Truly the empire had cast up highways for the messengers of the
King and kept them open for their progress with the Gospel.

The Latin language became the medium for the Gospel message in West-
ern Europe and later in Central and Northern Europe, ultimately unfortu-
nately to be made the " sacred " language for a large section of Christianity.
The thought-forms of Christian theology for the Roman Church, to be
inherited by the Protestant churches, were provided by the Roman law and
the courts of its administration, especially the doctrine of righteousness.
The ecclesiastical system of the Roman Church, as it developed in later
periods, was clearly modelled after the organization and administration of
the Roman Empire.

Pagan Rome was a field for the demonstration of the failure of men to
make for themselves any satisfying religion, and yet of their inability to
dispense with religion. There were cults, mysteries, sorceries, necromancy,
astrology, pantheisms, polytheisms, eclecticisms, deification of emperors,
every conceivable effort; yet men still waited for God. The Jews had
professed Him but could not rise to the demand for sharing Him on terms
that attracted. They did not proclaim Him as accessible save within the
walls of their own exclusivism. Yet the world was, in all these ways, made
as ready as God could make it through His providences among all peoples
for the beginning of a work which must so largely make its own prepara-
tion by its progressive ministry and achievement. God could now come in
Christ to reconcile the world unto Himself.

m

THE FOUNDING

THE missionary movement as a definite enterprise originated with
Jesus Christ. According to the Scriptures, the missionary idea has
its ultimate origin in the heart of God. The missionary message is
delivered by men and as an organized enterprise among men it is carried
on by the Church of Jesus Christ. It must therefore have a continuous
origin in the hearts of men who have come to interpret God in terms of
Jesus Christ and His spirit and method.

THE UNIVERSAUSM OF THE REWGION OS JESUS

The religious insight of Jesus from our first meeting of Him in the
Gospels goes to the heart of God as spiritual Father. Early in His min-
istry He is reported as saying to a Samaritan woman that the Father is
seeking worshippers, and that His worshippers "must worship him in
spirit and in truth." They must deliver themselves from all bondage of
place and of race, of tradition and forms. This is essentially His message
throughout. He began by ignoring the superficial distinctions of ortho-
doxy, regularity, ceremonialism, and all else that was merely local and
temporal in the religious expression of His day. The Temple and the syna-
gogues were freely used by Him. The Temple seems to have had peculiar
significance for Him, but His only recorded explanation of this is that it
was His Father's house designed to be a " house of prayer for all nations."
His zeal for it flowed in angry grief at its perversion from this divine
design. To the synagogues He went because of their utility for religion
and because there He found the people assembled. And always His con-
cern was for reaching the people in order that He might bring them face
to face with God Who was His Father and Who desired also to be their
Father. But while He used Temple and synagogues when it lay in His
way to do so, the field and the woods, the city street and market-place, the
highway and the home, were to Him just as truly the house of God. For
Him always religion was life responding to the presence and purpose of
God in all the relations of life. Religion was personal relation to God,
causing all who experience that relationship to express it in active love,
righteousness, sympathy, justice, mercy and truth in the social relations
in the midst of which our individual lives are lived and of which they
must be a part. It was futile to make long prayers, to fast and to give
alms, to perform any and all of the prescribed things of conventional religion
unless these were prompted by the true inward religious experience and
purpose which knew that it must find its living and testing in those human
relationships through which the ideals of the heavenly Father are realized
in human society.

27

28 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The one topic of the preaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of Heaven, or
the Kingdom of God two phrases by which the same concept is ap-
proached from somewhat different angles and at least largely determined
by whether the form of the thought was Hebrew or Greek. This concept
of the Kingdom was with Him basal, constructive, all-embracing. It con-
stituted His supreme passion, and He calls on all His followers to put it
first in their thinking, their praying, their longing, and their whole-hearted
and continuous effort. What He means by the Kingdom of God is not
easy to define in all its details. Yet what it is essentially is obvious enough.
He makes this quite clear in principle in "the Lord's Prayer." There He
bids each individual worshipper to approach God as the " Father of us
(social plural) who art in heaven." Thus He would have us relate our-
selves religiously to God Who is our Father; to all other men, who equally
hold the interest of God and in God's thought and purpose are bound up
with the worshipper; and Whose character and aim with men is expressed
by the thought that He is in heaven. His objective is to make earth har-
monious with heaven. This God the worshipper is to approach with the
character and intent of God dominating all his thoughts. Christian prayer
is to seek correspondence of human conduct in all relations with the ways
and will of God in heaven. This ideal and end must include all men. One
who prays the Lord's Prayer must do so with this concept in his heart.
His first concern is to be for the holiness of God's name in the thought of
men: "Hallowed be thy name." The first great need in religion is that
the character of God shall be recognized and responded to in the life of
men. Thus the Kingdom of God, His rule in the life of mankind, will
be realized in the free activity of man: "Thy kingdom come." This
concretely expressed, as in the purpose of Jesus it must be concretely
realized, means that on earth the good will of God will be experienced
in operation even as it is in heaven: "Thy will be done as in heaven so
on earth."

In His sympathies, and His interests and His work Jesus was always
wholly human and cosmopolitan. In the unspoiled child He found the type
for " the children of the kingdom." It was His universal human sympathy
that brought Him into conflict with the guardians of religious regularity.
They might have been able to tolerate such sympathy on His part as merely
one man eccentrically following out a private notion of God and religion.
But He gripped the imaginations and hearts of men. When an issue was
made over this notion of His He persisted and continued to assert that God
was expressing His attitude and will toward mankind through Him. He
knew God; they did not know Him and had not seen Him; and their an-
tagonism was due to their lack of faith and insight. This interpretation of
religion He proposes to make determinative, not for Himself alone but for
all men. By it men and their religious ideas and institutions are to be
judged. His interpretation of God and religion must persist and must
express itself in the coming of that kingdom in which centred the life of
God among men.

Religion thus interpreted cannot be other than a religion for all man-
kind. Jesus was passionately in earnest about this. He was prepared to

THE FOUNDING 29

die for it. He stood between the God of all men and all mankind, who
must know His God as Father or they had missed the whole meaning of
life. No one could accept His religion without sharing His passion. Any
man who would follow Him must take up his cross, even as Jesus was
already bearing His, and go on after Him to the utmost limit, in order that
his God and his fellow-men might meet in the principle and experience of
sacrifice. A religion based on this interpretation of God and His appreci-
ation of humanity cannot but be missionary. Propaganda is of its very
essence. It is out to win, because all life is worse than meaningless unless
men and God come together in His Christ.

Jesus opposes institutions and leaders of religion wherever they intervene
between men and God. In this He is at one with the great prophets. He
never puts Himself in antagonism and opposition with men as men, nor with
sinners as conscious and confessed sinners. Jesus does not attack social
and political institutions, while He does denounce injustice, unrighteousness,
oppression and all dishonesty of men who administer these institutions or
use them selfishly. He does attack religious organization or institution
whenever it abandons, its proper function of a way of approach between
men and God and makes itself a barrier between men and God. This is an
evil tendency in all religious institutionalism. The highest religion may
become a chief hindrance to Christ in bringing men to God and God's
ideals by making of itself an exclusive way of approach to God and then
assuming the role of judge of men who would respond to the call of God.
We see the anger of Jesus burn most of all against the organized control
of His own Jewish faith so as to use its institutions to remove God away
from men and discourage men who would seek God in their deep need. In
the end He had to set Himself definitely against the organization of His
own ancestral religion, in which assuredly He traced His Father's prepara-
tion for Himself. The guardians of that religion in His day were so
absorbed with their institution and obsessed with their own responsibility
for it that they missed the meaning of the institution and failed to
recognize Jesus Christ in His relation to it and to God. Thus they proved
that they had not known the Father. The outward institution of the
redemptive God put to death the Redeemer Whom God sent, because it
would not accept His interpretation of the religion which it was supposed
to embody.

In the same way Jesus Christ opposes all organized religion when its
institutions and their guardian priests shut men away from God when He
comes to them in the Gospel of His Saviour. Essential religion, which is
the producing source in men of all their religions, would cause men to
accept God coming to them in the fullness of the Gospel of Christ. Organ-
ized religions are apt to intervene and defeat or hinder the ends for which
they were created. It is only on this ground and in this sense that the
Gospel of Jesus Christ opposes and destroys religions. This principle the
Church of Jesus Christ needs in every age and in every advance to take
deeply to heart. For if His Church interposes its institutions between Him
and the world which He seeks to save, it becomes His chief hindrance in
fulfilling religion for God and for men. Let not any church forget that

30 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

the Jewish Church did to death the Christ for which it existed, and that
He was compelled to lead His Church out of and away from the Jewish
Church in order to go to humanity with His redemption. That history
has repeated itself in the course of the centuries and may repeat itself in
our present world.

JESUS TRUI,Y INTERPRETS GOD

Jesus justifies His interpretation of God and of man and of religion first
of all in His own clear consciousness. He had come out from the Father
and was bringing from the Father life for the world. He knew man, " knew
what was in man," and needed not that any one should tell Him. As " Son
of God " and " Son of Man " He would make all the sons of men to be
also sons of God; and He would make His Father to be also the Father of
all men. Here is the end of religion, and it is to be accepted at once and
acted upon as reality, sonship under God. Here, in Him, is the spirit of
sonship, which cannot rest while any possible son has not learned to say
" Father " to God.

Religious insight and immediate experience of God was the source of
Jesus' interpretation of religion. But Jesus grounded this interpretation
also in the Scriptures of the Hebrew religion. With these Scriptures He
had saturated His soul and had filled His mind. In His ministry they were
always on His lips. His interpretations were fresh, original, authoritative
with reality. In His teaching He was only stating in explicit, homely and
irresistible phrases what God had been saying through His messengers and
in these Scriptures from the beginning. "Thus it was written." What
He knew in experience He saw in the writing to be what God had put in
them. Any other interpretation was ignorance and perversion. His Father
was the God of the Old Testament and of all revelation however partial,
incomplete and misunderstood. It was with no narrow yielding to external
authority that He accepted the Old Testament. It was that He found there
the beginning and the continuity of the expression of God's redeeming grace
and its race- wide objective.

Jesus came of the Jews and once declared that " salvation is from (or of )
the Jews." Thus He justified and perpetuated the unity and the continuity
of the divine purpose and plan. He was not beginning something new.
" God is one," and true religion must have an unbroken history. It will
develop, expand, unfold, grow more comprehensive. Its inner principle
must ever be the same. Jesus brought to clear light the nature of true
religion and freed it from the misapprehensions and perversions it had
suffered at the hands of those to whom it had been committed. He brought
men back to the fact that salvation is from God and that religion must
originate with Him. God's grace is first, man's response follows, and
atonement is effected. "The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath
appeared unto all men" in Christ Jesus. This was the same grace of the
same God which had struggled through history to enlighten and lead men.
It must be so if men " live and move and have their being " in God. The
Jesus of Nazareth identifies Himself with the Christ of history and is so
identified emphatically by John, by Paul, and by the author of the Hebrews,

THE FOUNDING 31

the three different interpreters of the religion of the Christ three who,
with different approaches and different thought-forms, agree in their inter-
pretation of Christ and Christianity as the supreme expression of God ever
at work in history for the redemption, unification, and perfection of human-
ity. He is the interpreter of the past, the fulfiller of all that was promised
and presaged in Israel's history and in the world's progress, and hence-
forth He is the Saviour and hope of all men, the builder of the Kingdom
of God.

THE PROGRAMME OF JESUS UNIVERSAL

Jesus did not leave His religion with His followers without a programme.
Men could not know Him and share His interpretation of God without
entering upon a course of propaganda. Christianity would have been mis-
sionary without any explicit commands. Yet for this very reason its
Founder could not fail to outline the task which He and those who had
come to see God in Him would undertake. It is especially after His
resurrection that we find this programme. It begins on the very day of
the resurrection and is followed up upon every recorded meeting with
groups of His disciples during the forty days until the ascension. "As the
Father had sent Him into the world, even so sends He them into the world."
He has brought a way of salvation for all men. ' He is the Way, and the
Truth, and the Life; no man cometh to the Father but by Him/ Now
'whosesoever sins they forgive will be forgiven; whosesoever sins they
retain will be retained.' Luke tells us (Acts I -.3) that during these forty
days He was making His own identity absolutely unquestionable to these
followers of His; and that He was further teaching them, "through the.
Holy Spirit, the things concerning the Kingdom of God." On the occasion
of the ascension His followers desired Him to discuss with them that polit-
ical and temporal Hebrew leadership of the world which a false interpre-
tation of the promise and plan of God had engendered in the minds of even
the more spiritual Jews. "Lord," they ask Him, "dost thou at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel ? " They had learned that this worldly con-
ception occupied at least secondary place in His thinking. "Yet it must
come now or later. When? He put the question firmly away. They must
not allow this, or any other thing, to intervene in their thinking and inter-
fere with their whole, sole .devotion to the one task of bearing witness to
Him. In the face of their redemption from sin and their knowledge of
God as Father all other concerns of men must be secondary. In any case
God His God could not give His Kingdom to men until the Kingdom
was within men. This message His followers were to carry, as His wit-
nesses, in Jerusalem; in all Judea-Sarnaria; and unto the uttermost parts
of the earth. This commission, the verbal expression of His own passion
which He imparts spiritually to everyone who knows Him, contains the
programme of a religion whose first business it must always be to get on to
the next man, the next group of men, until the knowledge of this God shall
'fill the earth even as the waters cover the seas/ His Church is never
true to Him when it is seeking power, domination, control, dominion;
but only when it is witnessing, inspiring, serving, redeeming. It is

32 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

never to be " of the world," but always for the world in behalf of God in
Christ Jesus.

Nor does Jesus leave the matter with stating an ideal and exemplifying
a spirit. He has a small group of men to whom He has "shown the
Father;" and to whom He has also shown the world from the standpoint
of God. He has set them down between the Father and the world. They
must mediate. This is a divine responsibility. As "God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself," so also God will be in the followers
of Jesus fulfilling "the ministry of reconciliation." As God had been
seeking through the centuries, and continues to seek through the centuries,
to incorporate in humanity His love; and as God had become incarnate in
the person of His Son; it remains for God to incorporate Himself in the
Holy Spirit in His Church. This "promise of the Father," which Jesus
found alike in the words of the great prophets Isaiah and Joel, and in His
own conscious participation with the Father in purpose and plan, Jesus
gives to His followers. They "shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit," and
are 'not to depart from Jerusalem nor undertake any testimony of Him
until they are clothed upon by the Holy Spirit' On Pentecost this promise
was fulfilled. As at His own baptism the Holy Spirit came to " abide upon
him" and as He had fulfilled His ministry in association with the Holy
Spirit ; so now the Spirit comes to abide in the Church. They and He He
through them and they in Him are to take up the work of Jesus and carry
it on as an enterprise for the redemption of all mankind unto the ends of
the earth. The outstanding features in the significance of Pentecost are:

(1) that God and men who know Jesus are united in their witness to Him;

(2) that on every believer there present there rested a tongue of symbolic
flame indicating that he was made a spokesman for the redemptive King-
dom of God; (3) that everyone there present, "from every nation under
heaven," heard " in the language wherein he was born," the story of " the
wonderful works of God." This was an emphatic way of saying that it
was the will of God in Christ Jesus that every human being should hear
in his native vernacular of the grace of God in Christ Jesus; (4) that the
work of the Spirit of God was no longer to be limited to a professional
class who would authoritatively pass upon the relations of men to God,
but that upon all believing men and women God's Holy Spirit should come,
male and female, bond and free, and that they should all " prophesy." The
Christian interpretation of prophesying is exactly that which it etymolog-
ically suggests speaking for God, telling men what God has to say to
them. "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit (essence) of prophecy" (Rev.
19:10) ; (5) that there was now inaugurated an active movement definitely
designed to be universal, in accordance with God's purpose announced
through the prophet Joel: "It shall be that whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved;" (6) that the combination of enthusiastic
men and the energizing Spirit of God incorporating Himself in the witness-
ing group brought conviction and acceptance of the new way of life. " They
that received his word were baptized," three thousand of them immediately.
The enterprise had begun. Thenceforward God was adding day by day to
the number of those who were being saved.

THE FOUNDING 33

THE NEW TESTAMENT PRODUCED BY MISSIONS

Jesus had left His followers with no written record, except in so far as
the Old Testament was also their Bible in the sense in which it had been
His Bible, only in that sense. There is no account of any suggestion on
His part that they should write about Him. Still, writing was inevitable.
This movement could not go forward without interpretation, and without
definite, reliable, permanent record of the historic basis on which it rested.
A religion every member of which was expected and inspired to be a propa-
gandist would need to place in the hands of its following summaries of its
historic foundations and reliable interpretations of its significance. An
expanding Gospel rapidly reaching out into various parts of the world
must have its missionary tracts containing summary outlines of the main
features of Him in Whose name the whole movement went forward. Luke
tells us that many took it in hand to draw up such manuals for these work-
ers who were ever going farther and farther with the story. The Christian
churches were being planted. They constituted a new social organism in
the midst of the life of men. These new churches would meet all sorts of
problems concerning their own inner life and in their relationships to
existing social institutions and ways of life. The apostles and other great
missionaries would need to guide in the interpretation of the life of the
churches and of their reaction to the various moral and ethical problems
which arose in their social relations. A force working so powerfully in the
life of men as this Christian movement would raise intellectual problems.
The individual Christians and the churches lived in the power of a super-
human force working in them. This force they interpreted as that of the
living Christ Whom they identified with Jesus of Nazareth. The Church
was representing the Kingdom of God and was setting forth a social ideal
which they believed to be the objective toward which history was moving
in the definite purpose of God. They were preaching a new life produced
and mediated by the direct impact of God on the individual and corporate
life of man. Their "way of salvation" transcended and ran counter to all
the gospels which men had known before and which men were preaching at
the time. There was thus a series of thought-problems to which it was
necessary that the mind of a Paul should be addressed. The Christian
interpretation of God, life and destiny encountered objection from systems
both religious and philosophic. The Church had to face controversies.
From other religions and from philosophies was imported into the churches
that which must either be refuted or incorporated within the Christian
system, for Christianity could not avoid becoming in at least a general
sense a system of thought as well as of life.

Persecutions also raised problems for the followers of the Christ Who,
as they understood it, were to set up the Kingdom of God and to " over-
come the world." Their experiences with religious, political and social
persecution staggered some, discouraged many and made problems for all.
These problems had to be faced and met with interpretations and assurances
that became the common property of all Christians. Under all these im-
pulses and needs there grew up in the expanding corporate life of the

34 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Christian following a series of writings, twenty-seven of which ultimately
came to be recognized as the essential documentary history and interpre-
tation of Christianity as the world religion. Every one of these New
Testament books was the product of Christianity conceived and operating
as a missionary religion, carrying its Christ and His redemption to men
as such, to all men. The books may all be classified as groups of litera-
ture of (i) an expanding Gospel, (2) a growing Church, (3) a developing
theology, (4) a controverted faith and institution, (5) a persecuted people.
This way of producing the literature of the Christian religion stamps it
essentially and inevitably as a missionary literature and marks the religion
as disloyal to its own inner spirit whenever and in whatever measure it
fails in going into all the world with its witness. The Book of Acts is the
first chapter of Christian history. In this book we find the typical idea
which should control the writing of Christian history in all periods. It is
the record of missionary activity in obedience to the spirit and commission
of Jesus and under the impulse and guidance of the Holy Spirit Who is
the source of the life and activity of the Church. In His introduction, Luke
definitely connects Acts with the Gospel of Jesus. In that Gospel he has
told the story of the incarnation of God in Jesus and of the work which
"Jesus began to do and teach until the time that he was received up" at
the ascension. This second book he writes as the Gospel of the Holy Spirit
through Whom by means of His Church Jesus continued, after He was
received up, to carry on the work which He inaugurated "in the days of
his flesh." Luke had learned in his association with Paul, the world mis-
sionary, and by his own experience of the Holy Spirit that "the glorious
gospel of the blessed God " consists of two parts : the Gospel of God incar-
nate in His Son and the Gospel of the Son incorporate in the Church, ever-
more bringing God into the life of the world. Such is Christianity.

In the Gospel of Jesus, Luke comes to his climax in the story, in the
last chapter, of the Risen Lord " interpreting in all the scriptures the things
concerning himself" to the group of followers in the upper room in Jeru-
salem and then laying upon them the responsibility of going forward
"among all nations" to carry forward that which His life and death and
resurrection had begun.

In the Gospel of the Holy Spirit, Luke tells how the Church began its
missionary work when the Holy Spirit had come upon them on the day of
Pentecost. Jesus had committed His followers, as His Church, to this
undertaking, by His life, His teaching, His plans, His death, His resurrec-
tion and by the commandments which He gave them by the Holy Spirit
during the forty days between resurrection and ascension. They accepted
his commission ; waited for the promise of His Father, as He had charged
them; completed their organization of authoritative witnesses; gave them-
selves up to consecrating and expectant prayer. On the day of Pentecost
the missionaries were waiting with the message and with the accepted
responsibility; "men from every nation under heaven" were present to
hear the message; the Spirit came in power upon them and set in motion
God's mighty movement for redeeming mankind. This is missions.

IV
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF MISSIONARY HISTORY

TESTAMENT MISSIONS

WE have called the Book of Acts " The Gospel of the Holy Spirit."
It seems clear that the human author so conceived it. He gives it
no name. His introduction suggests one, and his treatment con-
firms the suggestion. In the first chapter we have an account of the
promise by Jesus that the Holy Spirit would be sent upon His followers,
bringing to them power in which they would be able to effectually to con-
tinue and extend His work by bearing witness to Him. With this promise
they proceeded to make preparation for the coming of the Spirit, completing
their simple organization, devoting themselves to prayer and generally
putting themselves in readiness for the expected manifestation, whatever
form it might take. With this account of the promise and the preparation
for the Holy Spirit, in chapter one, we find hi chapter two the story of
the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believers, and the taking up of the
work committed to the Holy Spirit and these believers jointly; and thus we
see the definite inauguration of the work of the Gospel of Jesus as a world
Gospel. In the ascension commission (chapter one), Jesus had given a
geographical outline for the activities of His followers. They were to begin
in Jerusalem; extend their efforts in Palestine ("all Judaea-Samaria ") ;
and thence out into the wider world, " unto the uttermost parts of the
earth." Taking up the account in Acts, we find that all the incidents
through chapter seven belong to Jerusalem, the first stage hi the geograph-
ical programme. From chapter eight through twelve, the story has to
do with characteristic experiences in "bearing the witness" in Judaea-
Samaria, the second stage in the geographical programme. The work in
Antioch lies beyond Palestine, to be sure, but was inaugurated, quite
naturally, as an overflow from Palestine. From this point onward through
Acts we have the account of the development of this new phase of the
Christian message up to the point where it had become definitely recognized
as a world-wide Gospel and as the proclamation of a religion for all men.

The story of Acts closes with Paul in the world's capital, Rome. Luke
has then completed his story, the story of a movement beginning with the
interpretation of God by the Carpenter-Preacher in Galilee, and closing
with that interpretation of God already, in Christ, a working force in the
life of the Roman Empire and potentially functioning in the redemptive
religion for the human race. Throughout the story in what we call Acts,
Luke has treated men as only the instruments of the Holy Spirit. He has
not discounted the intelligence, the autonomy and the responsibility of men.
He has fully recognized the human element in the work and in the prob-
lems. He has seen quite clearly the value of leadership on the part of

35

36 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

creative and constructive personalities. Peter and John, Paul and Bar-
nabas, are all in their way tremendous factors and great builders. Yet for
Luke they all have their value as agents in the unfolding of the divine
purpose, a purpose made concrete and operative in Jesus and now carried
forward in accordance with a plan of God, constantly developed and con-
trolled by His Holy Spirit, working through the Church, as He does at
all times. When Luke has brought the Gospel to the point of being a
definite world factor he leaves off, even leaving his great friend Paul
bound in Rome. He knows, as Paul knows and so buoyantly affirms when
his own martyrdom is at hand (2 Tim. 2:9), that whatever may be the
fate of individual representatives, even of the Peters and the Pauls, " the
gospel is not bound." That is the end of Luke's chapter of the story.
Other chapters will be written until the Christ has mastered the human
race for its redemption.

CAUSES OF RAPID EXPANSION

The expansion of Christianity was rapid and startling. Throughout the
first century it was distinctly a new movement. It had all the vital power
of a new movement. The sense of the immediacy of God in the Holy
Spirit was vivid, thrilling, and irresistible. The Christian following was
everywhere still in the minority and was beset with conflicting interpre-
tations of life and religion. The people for whom the Gospel was intended
were everywhere present. Every church and every Christian was con-
tinually face to face with the unsaved multitudes whose need pressed in
upon their consciousness. The presence of God in their life through the
Holy Spirit was manifest in such " signs and wonders " as were for Chris-
tians and non-Christians continually arresting of attention and persuasive
of confidence. Persecutions began early and continued with sufficient per-
sistence and violence to make certain that few would enter the churches
without vital experience and definite committal to the Christian under-
taking. All these facts inspired the churches with enthusiasm, energy, and
intelligent aggressiveness. These are characteristics most important for
rapid growth and expansion, but extremely difficult to maintain once the
movement has become definitely established in the life of the world and
tends to be taken for granted by the masses of men, both within the
churches and outside of them, as only one of the many forms of human
ongoing. Herein is one of the supreme needs of Christianity, a need
always supplied where there is the living sense of the divine life in the
individual and in the organism. Arresting novelty and originality must
attract attention and stimulate reaction favourable or unfavourable for any
movement that is to grow rapidly and strongly among men. Vigorous
life has this originality and novelty. Every springtime in nature stirs
imagination, interest and activity with the new manifestations of life. A
truly live Christianity is a stirring force in human life.

While it is not possible to give statistics concerning the Christian fol-
lowing by the end of the first century, nor to state with any clearness of
detail the geographical extent and the locations to which it attained, it is
clear that it had established itself in outstanding centres from Jerusalem

NEW TESTAMENT MISSIONS 37

to Rome, and had gone as far eastward as Persia and India, had become
extensive in Egypt and was beginning to reach into North Africa, had
planted itself in many of the Mediterranean islands, including Cyprus and
CretCj and had established outposts at least as far as Spain. It was an
achievement to be accounted for only as a remarkably vital movement
which was ministering to a very conscious need in soul-hungry men.

The new movement had gone far in interpreting itself in the face of its
ever-expanding task. Paul had been led to interpret the Christian way of
salvation, as distinguished from the legalism of Judaism and of all other
systems the Letter to the Galatians; to expound with matchless cogency
the Christian doctrine of righteousness Epistle to the Romans; and then
to go on and set Christ and His Church against the background of cosmic
history, as the movement of God " in the Church and in Christ Jesus " by
which the "plan of the ages" was to be realized in the course of history
Epistle to the Ephesians. No interpretation of life and history has ever
matched this for depth of thought, majesty of conception and religious appeal.

Christianity has come into contact with the Jewish Alexandrian philos-
ophy with its Logos teaching, and with the Gnostic philosophy, as also
with the Mystery Religions. In these connections it has come to interpret
itself in terms of the best thought and the deepest longing of the mind and
heart of man. It has come into definite conflict with the Jewish religion
and has won its victory as the better interpretation of God's purpose in
the Old Testament history and revelation. It has definitely appropriated
the Hebrew Bible as part and parcel of the common divine approach to
men, the consummation of which in Jesus Christ is the foundation of the
Christian Church.

INAUGURATING FOREIGN MISSIONS

The preaching in Antioch, so far as the human agents were concerned,
was merely a part of their customary witness to Jesus wherever they went.
At first, as elsewhere, the preaching was " to none save only to Jews," and
to such Gentiles as associated themselves religiously with the Jews. Some
unnamed Christian witnesses were Hellenistic Jews, i. e., reared in Gentile
communities where the Greek language and customs prevailed. These, on
coming to Antioch, made a new departure and "preached the Lord Jesus
even unto Greeks." "And the hand of the Lord was with them; and a
great number that believed turned unto the Lord." Thus without any
definite human consciousness or design of making a new stage in a world
movement these simple-hearted Christians, in a perfectly natural way,
brought the Church face to face with the heathen world. This was at
first looked upon as a novel and exceptional extension of the witnessing
within the range of the Jewish faith. It was so novel as to call for examina-
tion. "The report concerning them came to the ears of the church which
was at Jerusalem; and they sent forth Barnabas as far as Antioch; who,
when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad; and he ex-
horted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave unto the
Lord; for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith; and
much people was added unto the Lord. And he went forth unto Tarsus to

38 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

look up Saul ; and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. And it
came to pass that even for a whole year they were* gathered together with
the church, and taught much people; and the disciples were called Christians
first in Antioch."

This informal and unplanned breaking away from the limits of Judaism
was soon to be formally and distinctly recognized. With chapter thirteen
of Acts' we see the formal inauguration of foreign missions. Here it is not
a question of reaching beyond Jews to Gentiles; it is interpreting a dis-
tinctly Christian Church as a base of operation for carrying the Gospel
unto the non-Christian world. " (Now there were at Antioch, in the church
that was there, prophets and teachers. . . . And as they ministered to the
Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for
the work whereunto I have called them. Then when they had fasted and
prayed and laid their hands upon them, they sent them away. So they
being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia (the seaport
of Antioch); and from thence they sailed to Cyprus." The Gospel had
now entered formally upon the third stage of the ascension programme
" unto the uttermost part of the earth."

CONDUCT TO ESTABLISH THE SPIRITUAL, UNIVERSAIJSM Of CHRISTIANITY

When the Gospel entered thus upon its geographical career as a world
religion, it had not yet become in the minds of its followers a spiritually
universal religion for the human race. Even when the Holy Spirit had
led to the idea that an established and prosperous church with a growing
membership should become the base of operations for wider extension and
should divide its workers, sending the strongest to become missionaries in
unevangelized territory, the majority had still to learn that the Christian
Gospel must be permitted to make its direct approach to men as it finds
them. It was at first assumed, without being seriously considered, that all '
would come to Jesus Christ through the Jewish way, that being the his-
toric channel of His coming into the world and of the providential prepara-
tion for His coming. Pentecost had not necessarily raised any question
as to this, for its converts were all in Jerusalem because they were Jews
in religion if not also in race. Philip baptized believing Samaritans. Peter
and John must needs investigate, in behalf of the apostles, and of all the
Jerusalem church, and must witness the miracle-working " seal " of the Holy
Spirit before they were ready to give the Gospel to other Samaritans as
Samaritans. It required a vision-trance to bring Peter to preach to Cornelius
and his friends who were worshippers of the one God but had not come into
the Jewish fold. And Peter's testimony to his own vision, to Cornelius'
vision of the angel and to the repeated " seal " of the Holy Spirit who " fell
on them," as he said, " even as on us at the beginning," had to be confirmed
by the "six brethren" whom he had had the foresight to take along with
him. Even then he did not convince the church at Jerusalem, nor fully
'convince himself, that a principle had been revealed. "Then to the Gen-
tiles did God grant (not 'hath granted 5 aorist, not perfect tense) re-
pentance unto life." They admitted an instance and had the grace to
acquiesce; they did not yet accept a policy. God, not they, had done this.

NEW TESTAMENT MISSIONS 39

So when Barnabas and Paul had accepted the full implications of their
commission to the heathen and returned to report the founding of churches
of Gentile converts in numerous cities and to announce that what "God
had done with them " meant that " he had opened a door of faith to the
Gentiles/' they raised a disturbing issue in the Christian Church. "Cer-
tain men came down from Judsea (to Antioch) and were teaching the
brethren: Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses ye cannot
be saved." Here was an issue of the most vital significance for the new
faith, for any faith that aspires to be a world religion. It produced "no
small dissension and questioning" in Antioch, and a commission including
Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to seek to come to terms with the
Jerusalem church on the subject. In small committee and in open congre-
gation, among apostles and elders and in "the whole church" it was
argued and considered until unanimous agreement was reached so that
they could report to the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, and
thus to the world, that " it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to
lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things" things that
had to do with basal social morality and elemental religious feeling. In
the conference Peter had given an amazing statement of the case. Through
the experiences of the Gospel among Gentiles he said it had come to be
seen that " we (Jews) shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,
in like manner as they (the heathen)." Here was a twofold announce-
ment of the profoundest significance. Jews were saved only "through the
grace of the Lord Jesus;" that way of salvation was open to all without
regard to previous relations. The Gospel appeal is to men as men and its
salvation is through simple faith in Jesus as Lord, and is through direct
approach, not through some form of religion hallowed by time.

It was a happy solution and carried the charter of universalism for the
religion of the Lord Jesus. But it was too elemental to win permanent
. and universal acceptance. A " Judaizing party " continued to hold that
Christianity must include Judaism. Their emissaries followed up the ever-
growing free Christianity and, not without troubling success, sought to
win the missionary churches to this interpretation. Paul had great trouble
to save "the freedom of the Gospel for the Gentiles" in Corinth and
Galatia. The division of opinion was widely promoted. Organized religion
always tends to become formal, ceremonial, sacramentarian, sacerdotal. Not
from Judaism alone did such tendencies enter the Christian churches. They
came in with converts from whatever previous faith and they appealed to
certain moods of the human heart. Paul and his friends had won a signal
victory in the crucial contest at Jerusalem. But the fight h^d to be kept
up. It tended to divide the Christian Church into two denominations: one
insisting on holding to sacred traditions, claiming ancient covenants, boast-
ing an appealing liturgy and becoming an imposing institution in the world's
life; the other bringing God and His salvation into immediate contact with
man with every man in Christ Jesus, emphasizing individualism and
personal freedom, treating the Church as an agency of a saving Gospel
and not as an institution of saving grace. There was a powerful move-
ment toward an irresistible conflict between these two interpretations. To

40 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Paul this seemed such a tragedy that to avert it no exertion and no sacrifice
was too great. At imminent risk of life and in the face of most earnest
warnings and affectionate pleas he went again to Jerusalem. He succeeded
in saving Christianity from dividing at that time and gladly accepted the
price of from four to five years' imprisonment for the holy achievement.
It was two or three centuries before divisions did come. More men with
Paul's insight, vision and passion for Christ and His Church might have
saved the tragedy in other crises. We cannot look upon the history of
Christianity and feel that Paul's contention for an unhampered Gospel of
the redeeming God for all men has been consistently maintained. Even
among those who would most vigorously claim Paul as their interpreter
there is almost universal tendency to test the Christian faith and experi-
ence in terms of the Jewish religion and its ceremonies and to measure
orthodoxy and regularity in ecclesiastical behaviour by the traditions of
the Christian elders. This primitive struggle for the "freedom of the
Gospel" must be studied afresh whenever Christianity seeks to respond
to the call of its spiritual genius and go forth to bring the good tidings of
its testimony to all men. Every new missionary undertaking has to face
the question of formal regularity.

DIFFERENTIATING CHRISTIANITY FROM JUDAISM

The status of Christianity as an independent Gospel was established in
this century through progressive development. At first the Christians
thought of themselves as Jews come into the full meaning of their Juda-
ism and enjoying the realization of the promises of God to the fathers.
They were so conscious of a living Presence within them and among them
that they gave little attention to the formal aspects of their religion or of
the details of its historic connection. To them it was at first most natural
that they should use the Temple in Jerusalem. Had not "the Lord come
to his holy temple" and were they not His worshippers and messengers?
The custodians of the Temple and of its religion were not long in oppos-
ing this assumption. Saul of Tarsus made it very evident that Christians
were not to be tolerated in any Jewish circle. Yet it was as a Jewish
heresy that he opposed the new faith and as a Jewish sect that he perse-
cuted them unto the death. With Saul's conversion the sect came under
new leadership. Meantime Barnabas had set his approval upon a movement
that made Christianity more than a sect of any faith. When he and the
now Christian Saul had joined forces in the important work in Antioch
they were not operating a branch of any existing religion. They were
now aware of the independence of Christianity as a religion in its own
right of divine presence and power. Then the Holy Spirit made Antioch
not Jerusalem the centre from which organized expansion was under-
taken as a characteristic policy of Christianity. It was in its own right
and character, not as a Jewish sect, that Christianity would enter upon
its world career. Here was a fact the meaning of which would unfold with
the growth of the movement. These men of Antioch were following what
was for them unmistakably the leading of the Holy Spirit; were obeying a
clear command of God.

NEW TESTAMENT MISSIONS 41

The policy of the Roman Government toward religion was liberal and
tolerant but with regulations important for avoiding conflicts and dis-
turbances arising out of emotional intensity and partisan rivalry. Existing
religions in any province of the empire might continue and be protected.
There were religions enough. JSTew ones would foment strife by winning
proselytes. So long as Christianity was a sect of the Jews the Roman
authorities could ignore its existence or leave Jewish authorities to deal
with it as they were authorized to deal with all matters of religious regu
lation. In one way or another the new sect came to the attention of the
Roman authorities and there were conflicts and questions. Paul and Silas
were violently maltreated and thrown into prison at Philippi, but their
Roman citizenship procured their release and the local magistrates were
only too glad to evade any issue. Some ten years earlier Herod had per-
secuted Christians, even summarily executing the Apostle James and had
planned to do the same with Peter. Still this came within his Jewish
relations, even though he was also a Roman subject-king, and no issue
with Roman law was involved. In Corinth a concerted action of Jews
sought from Gallio, as proconsul, the prohibition of Christian activities
under Roman law. By dismissing the case Gallio in effect gave legal
standing to the Christian religion within the empire. In Rome itself the
Jews emphasized the difference between Judaism and Christianity and
helped in the insane orgy of Nero's persecution of Christians in order to
save themselves from trouble. In the Book of Hebrews, written about the
year 70, we have from the Christian side a clear-cut distinction drawn
between Jews and Christians, which, however, takes strongly and clearly
the position that Christianity is the successor to Judaism because it fulfills
the meaning of Judaism, being the substance of that of which the Jewish
liturgy and ceremonial was the type, the prophecy and the shadow. The
book is based on the fact that the Jews had come to regard Christianity
as a separate faith and were seeking to win Christian Jews to repudiate
it and return to their own fold. Thus it was that within a single gener-
ation Christianity came to be known and recognized in all circles as an
independent faith, in its claim and mission exclusive of even its historical
progenitor to all of whose spiritual values it laid claim.

This separate standing had its advantages and disadvantages. When
the Christian way was opposed the way to persecution was open and
easier. When the feeling was friendly, any one would feel free to identify
himself with a Christian church without violating any Roman law or
jeopardizing citizenship, if he held that distinction. As a distinct religion
with its own institutions, Christianity was new and its origin and status
uncertain before the law, and it would be easy to invoke official repression.
Twice within the first century imperial authority sought its extermination
as a dangerous novelty within the social organism.

DEFINING THE CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS

While Christianity was freeing itself from the Jewish Church and
defining its attitude toward Jewish history and theology it was winning
to its membership men with other background and inheritance of religion

42 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

and culture. As a religion of redemption it came into contact and compe-
tition with the various "Mystery Religions." It had the advantages of
a definite historic Founder, Who was also its Saviour; of the highest
ethical appeal; of seeking to minister to all classes without distinction and
with no esoteric secrets and initiations. If this lacked the attraction of
mystery which appeals to some it also had the power of universal appeal
and challenge to the highest idealism. It was necessary to develop an
attitude toward other religions and a technique in dealing with them.
Eclecticism and amalgamation were very current in the Graeco-Roman
world and constituted an especial danger for the new faith. Here was a
danger that must always be present in varying degrees. It began to be
felt from the first. The Christian way of meeting it in the first century
was freely to recognize the truth wherever it was met, to lay hold on
the characteristic terminology of prevailing and opposing systems and to
refine and enlarge the content of the terms so that they would hold the
truth with its Christian extension. Thus John deals with the Logos
(Word) idea of Jewish Alexandrian religio-philosophy. Thus Paul ap-
propriates the terms musteria ("mysteries"), pleroma ("fullness"), sophia
("wisdom"), and a group of terms used to designate orders of beings
supposed to intervene between supreme deity and humanity. In the same
way the author of Hebrews had appropriated for Christianity the terminol-
ogy of the Hebrew liturgy and sacrificial system; and Paul found all essen-
tials of the Hebrew law fulfilled and expanded and superseded in Christ,
Who was "the end of the law for righteousness to every one who believ-
eth." The apostolic method was to avoid the antagonism of contradiction
on the one hand and equally to avoid the error and weakness of amal-
gamation and compromise on the other hand. The Christians claimed all
truth and would unite all truth-seekers; while they formulated the truth
according to their own genius with the personal Redeemer and Lord as
the formulating principle, and maintained the integrity of their own churches
as the social, religious units of their own religion-.

DEVELOPING CHRISTIAN STRATEGY

Paul and his associates adopted a simple missionary strategy. The polit-
ical territorial units usually served for religious units also. While "all
nations" were ever before them as they went to make their Christ the
Saviour and Master of the "inhabited earth" (the "world" of the iSew
Testament vocabulary), it seems fairly certain that Paul set before his
own vision the Roman Empire as his own parish. He adopted the province
as his unit for evangelization. Selecting the chief city or more than one
for base of operations, he organized campaigns to evangelize the popu-
lation centres and thus to cover the province. L,uke records that with
Ephesus as the base "all they that were in Asia heard the word." This
is typical. Converts were organized into churches of which the city with
its suburbs and environs made up the constituency. With one organization
for all Christians in such a region and with a plurality of convening and
evangelizing centres, all under supervision of one board of "elders," it
was possible to place responsibility for all the community upon the city

NEW TESTAMENT MISSIONS 43

church, and to provide for bringing the message to all the people. Pro-
vision was made for the instruction of the converts, for the autonomous
life of the church, with its officers chosen from its own membership, and
for cultivating the sense of fellowship in spiritual unity with all Christians
everywhere. Each group was taught to depend upon the Holy Spirit
within themselves, to assume full financial and administrative autonomy,
to " guard the unity of the faith in bonds of peace."

For the unity of the Christian movement they depended upon spiritual
bonds and undertook no mechanical union. The one Church was the Body
of the Christ growing to complete manhood in the progress of the living
Gospel. This one Church had no organic form and so no central adminis-
tration. Like its Lord, it was a spiritual fact present in the life of the
world, locally organic in the church groups built up in each city community.

The Christian religion was a way of life as well as an experience of
Salvation and nope of eternal life. Jesus had always applied the test of
fruit-bearing. There was no ground for claiming connection with Him by
piously saying, "Lord, Lord," unless there was the doing of the things
He said. He had come "to fulfill all righteousness," to get the will of
His Father done on earth as it is in heaven.. This supreme moral demand
was part of the apostolic programme. To the penitents on the day of
Pentecost Peter emphasized most strongly the call to save themselves from
the crooked ways of their own generation. Paul urged that "the Lord
Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us out of this
present evil age, according to the will of God our Father" (Gal. 1:4).
This was an unvarying factor in the Christian message. " The salvation-
bearing grace of God had appeared unto all men, instructing us to tie
intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly
and righteously and godly in this present age; looking for the appearing
of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself
a people for his own possession, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:11-14).
They were always so to live that men should see their good works and
glorify their Father Who is in heaven (i Pet. 2:12, referring to Matt. 5 ' I 6).

This high ethical demand brought many problems for the churches in
the social order of the day. Social regeneration was an essential feature
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Social reconstruction would inevitably
follow the success of this movement. It avoided becoming a mere social
movement by proposing no social schemes for mankind generally. It sought
eagerly to exhibit new social ideals in its own church groups and to exalt
the will of the holy and righteous God in His message of salvation to all
men. High social living, loyal and ideal citizenship even in sadly defective
and often unfriendly governments, and generous social concern for all men
were pressed upon the converts in all the churches. The moral and ethical
levels came to distinct elevation in the Christian communities everywhere.

STATUS OF CHRISTIANITY AT CI.OSS Otf APOSTOWC ERA

Thus at the dose of the Apostolic Age, Christianity has become a recog-
nized fact in the life of the world, a fact of tremendous proportions and

44 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

significance. And this because it has become a factor in the world's life.
Already the leaders of every phase of organized society knew that they had
to reckon with the Church as an influence and an institution. Christianity
was now a recognized competitor of all other religions, but proclaimed its
Christ as the only hope and only law of mankind. It did not consciously
compete with others for the favour and following of men. It proclaimed
its Christ as the only Saviour of men, who were lost and hopeless apart
from Him. It was not concerned for its own glory, it was passionately
concerned for men, as lost, and for Christ as the One worthy of all ac-
ceptance and praise because He had given Himself to be the Saviour of
all men. Christianity had already gained an influence entirely dispropor-
tionate to its actual following. And this following by the end of the cen-
tury must already have approximated a million. The political powers had
recognized it and had undertaken two distinct, extensive movements to
suppress it. For the most part the world of culture was by this time only
beginning in any large way to take note of Christianity, although we must
not overlook the Gnostics and Philo. At first the attitude of culture toward
Christianity was one of contempt, with the effort to ridicule the Christians
into silence and discredit. The salient fact is that the world knew that it
was having to deal with a new factor which could not be ignored. Chris-
tianity was aggressive and challenging. Its ideals might be too high to
be practicable, its teachings "too good to be true." Yet it was not merely
another movement competing for the attention of men and claiming the
adherence of followers; it was a Gospel to the "weary and heavy laden,"
an inspiration to the noble and the energetic of spirit. It was more than
groups of fanatics devoted to a peculiar way of life, who might be left
alone to follow their own superstitions and oddities within their own circles ;
it had a social ideal that might easily lead men to formulate social pro-
grammes that would reconstruct the organization of all human life. In
any case its social ideals and social standards were a continuous rebuke
to the life of the day and compelled men to consider the possibility of a
new order of life. The world was definitely reacting to this new force.
The forms of its reactions were varying and as yet largely uncertain; but
they were sufficiently extensive and sufficiently vigorous for the Church to
know that she must meet opposition, face persecution, pay a heavy price
for the privilege of preaching the Gospel and bringing the Kingdom of
God into the 4ife of men,

V

FIRST PERIOD: PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE

A. a 29-313

THE periods of missionary history do not coincide with the periods of
general Church history. There would naturally be a general corre-
spondence. The history of missions must place the emphasis on
expansion into new territory, while Church history, as it has been written,
places the emphasis on doctrines, ecclesiastical forms, organization, creeds,
and upon internal c developments, and contacts with secular life. Church
history finds its main interest in countries and areas where the Church is
strongest. Missionary history deals with beginnings in new territory.
Neither can ignore the field of the other. There is necessary interrelation.
Yet it is important that the history of missions shall have its periods
whether, as sometimes will be the case, they coincide with the recognized
periods of ecclesiastical history or not.

Christian missions begin with Pentecost. It seemed best to deal with
the earliest efforts in a separate chapter (IV) before beginning to trace
the continuous current of the history. Having studied the source, we can
go on to trace the stream. Our periods will now be determined by the
dominance of characteristic facts and features of the different areas in the
expansion of Christianity over the world. We begin with the union of
the Holy Spirit and men who have committed themselves to Jesus Christ
and His enterprise, as they take up together the witness to Jesus as the
Saviour of the world. This union of disciples and Holy Spirit was dra-
matically and definitely effected in the Pentecost experience. From that
time we have, in varying degrees of loyalty and success on the part of the
Church, the carrying out of the plan announced by Jesus (John I5:26ff.) :
" But when the Comforter (Challenger) comes, whom I will send to you
from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he
will bear testimony of me; and you, on your part, also are to bear testi-
mony of me; because you have been with me from the beginning/' The
New Testament tells us how this movement began and proceeded in its
first stages. There we observe it trying itself out as factor in human
life. In its earliest stages it was dominated by its consciousness of being
a divine movement, divinely organized, empowered, directed and sustained.
Born of spiritual experience, it was at first individualistic, yet, with all the
individuals united in a characteristic experience, it had its common source
in the Living Christ. So there was cohesion, unity and co-operation. The
aim was to prepare the world for the Christ Whose coming to take con-
trol of the world was for them so definite an expectation as to seem immi-
nent. This gave urgency and definiteness to their task. Their ideal, to

45

46 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

begin with, was largely spiritual. Their faith was marked with great
simplicity. They were witnesses to a divine energy operating in the
world because of the presence of a Supreme Person. They had not yet
developed any distinct system and were not propagating a religion as such.
Their various congregations, rather loosely organized, were not thought of
as fractional units of a composite and powerful organization, but rather
as life centres and functioning units of a growing organism that was
creating a new society in the midst of the human race. The original
impulse of this movement is traceable throughout the period until the union
of the Church and State under Constantine. In all respects, however, we
have to observe in the course of this period the development of a church-
consciousness and a world-consciousness. Jesus had said that His followers
were not of the world even as He was hot of the world, and that their
success in representing Him and their loyalty to Him would separate them
from the world and would bring upon them the hatred and antagonism of
the world. At first this separateness from the world was strong in their
consciousness. Whereas at first Christians largely ignored the world except
as the field of their testimony, as something from which they were sepa-
rated, it was not many decades until -they were making themselves at home
ia the world while depending upon divine power to enable them to conquer
the world and to protect them from it. As local churches increased in
number and in variety, as they were influenced by the various social and
political environments under which they began and grew, the sense of
unity was more and more mediated by a stronger bond of outward union.
The large metropolitan churches tended constantly to overshadow and to
dominate the churches in other cities, towns and village districts. Inter-
relationships with secular institutionalism affected the attitude of the Church
toward society and especially toward the political state. The imperialistic
atmosphere of the age contributed toward the building up of a sense of
authority in the centres which necessarily exercised widest and most power-
ful influence over the Christian units in the large areas. The ambitions of
able leaders played their part in converging tendencies toward the making
of Christianity an organized system with centralized powers of adminis-
tration, at length issuing in the concept of one all-comprehensive Church
with its authority localized in Rome. It is not possible or necessary to
trace this operation in detail here. We take account of determinative facts
and factors up to the union of Church and State under Constantine. Here
was a fact that changed definitely the concept of the mission of the Church
and marks the transition to a second period of the development of the
Church and of a change in its methods of missionary expansion.

PROBLEMS OF A SPIRITUAI, FORCE IN A PRACTlCAI, WORI,D

The primitive individualism of the churches waned under the advance
of the influence and authority of the Church. The individual was thus
progressively eclipsed, and individual initiative and independence in the
witness to Christ grew less and less. The Gospel as a simple testimony
to the redeeming 1 grace of God in Jesus Christ tended more and more to
become the proclamation of a system of truth. The system must needs be

PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE 47

defined in dogmas. The Christian movement as it progressed experienced
interactions with other social factors, and the growth of a unified church-
consciousness opened the way for accommodations, adjustments, diplomacy,
modification, compromise. That is the common lot of all human move-
ments, especially as they become institutionalized. It was not possible for
Christianity to begin as a completely developed form of life, thought and
institution. No vital human movement can become completely defined and
thoroughly fixed. Every movement as it formulates a system tends to
become complete and exact. If it succeeds in exact definition and stabilized
formulation, it dies and is left behind. It must grow in interaction with
the facts and forms of the life of which it is a part and which it under-
takes to direct. The consciousness of heavenly origin and aim in the
Christian religion must always be difficult to maintain in the actual con-
tacts with the realities of human life. An ideal system and institution
would lack effective contacts with life in the world which professedly is
seriously in need of change in all its forms. To maintain the balance
between being an influence and an energy of God for the purpose of regen-
erating and reconstructing the life of the human race on the one hand,
and being a practical, social reconstructive agency on the other hand is
too delicate an undertaking for us to expect it to be maintained with con-
sistency and uniformity. But it must at least be persistent and must be
ever reasserting itself. The New Testament defines the task of Chris-
tianity as the remaking of the human race, whereby the racial, political,
economic, social, and religious fragments of the race are, by regeneration
and by attachment to the Church of God as the informing centre of all
life, built into the new human race. Within this first period, therefore,
we witness the formations, developments, and modifications which come
about in the Christian movement as it grapples with its task in the con-
ditions and relationships of a world which it is undertaking definitely to
change. We have the growth from a movement of life into an institution-
alized Church. There was also a distressing dimming of the vision of the
nature of that task. We are to trace in outline the progress of achieve-
ment, taking note of the modifications within the movement itself as they
affect the growth of Christianity as a world-changing force.

METHODS Otf THIS PERIOD

Throughout this period the oral witness to the power and purpose of
Christ continues to be the main instrument in Christian work. Preaching
. becomes more formal and professional, but without losing its power, while
a non-professional witness of individuals to their own experience continues
to be the main influence hi development, although with lessening of en-
thusiasm and conviction. " Miracles " come to be relied upon far less than
in the beginning. Before the end of the period the great theologian, Origen,
is definitely explaining that miracles have disappeared as a distinct agency
of Christianity because they are no longer needed. He finds their chief
function that of validating Christianity as a divine movement, and not as
in the case of Jesus and the first century missionaries, an instrument of the
Gospel undertaking.

48 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The apostles set the example of the use of literature as a means of
Christian progress and interpretation. OtKers followed their example.
Barnabas, Clement, and others were writing "epistles," or their names
were being used by others who wrote, while some of the apostles weie
still alive. This use of literature continues and grows until it becomes an
extensive means of promoting the Christian cause. Besides letters to
churches and groups of churches, treatises explaining and defending Chris-
tianity against misunderstanding and assaults were numerous, some of
them very able and exercising permanent influence in the life of Chris-
tianity. There were those also who undertook a polemic against pagan
practices and systems, producing powerful arguments to show the folly,
irrationality and ineffectiveness of idolatry and of the moral and ethical
ideals and rules of pagan systems. Works dealing with the relation of
the Christian foundations to the teachings of philosophy were addressed to
the cultured element in the life of the empire. The "Apostolic Writings"
were widely circulated as individual documents and in groups, while pro-
gressively there grew up a general understanding of what came later to be
called the "New Testament Canon." This group of writings came to
have a sort of authoritative value for all the churches, most ol which
possessed one or more copies, either complete or partial. It early became
obvious that the Christian Scriptures should be translated into other lan-
guages for the benefit of those who did not understand Greek. These
translations were a necessary part of the missionary expansion which was
continued without cessation, although with some abatement, through this
period. We find translations, beginning within the first hundred years of
missionary work, into Syriac, with versions slightly different; Latin, prob-
ably two or more translations; Ethiopic, and Armenian, all before the end
of this period. These translations and the other literature were not only
a means of extension in the missionary work but a great factor in the
permanence and historic continuity of the movement, as they also served
to promote uniformity of experience, belief, and institution in the wide-
spread areas into which Christianity was going. But for these writings
and for the extensive travels in visitation, ministration and " confirmation "
of the saints and the churches, the various social and economic conditions
in the different parts of the world would have brought about sectional and
fractional development which would have prevented any effective unity in
Christianity in the early centuries.

The succession of missionaries who employed writing as a method is con-
tinuous from the apostles and includes many names within these first centuries.

Justin, born in Palestine of heathen parentage, at the beginning of the
second century, enjoyed the advantages of education and travel. He de-
voted himself to philosophy. He shared the contempt of the cultured for
the simple Christians until their bearing under persecution so impressed
him that his sense of justice called for some one to cry : " Shame, shame on
the guilty, who charge upon the innocent the crimes of themselves and
their gods ! " While he was thus in sympathetic attitude an old Christian
fell in with him, showed him the futility of the philosophers and turned his
attention to the Old Testament prophets. He was led on to know and

PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE 49

accept Christ. He became thenceforward a missionary especially to the
cultured and ruling 1 classes, retaining the role and garb of a philosopher.
He claimed that he was a philosopher because he had found "this philos-
ophy alone to be safe and profitable." He was eager for all men to share
his experience. He says: "Moreover, I would wish that all, making- a
resolution similar to my own, do not keep themselves away from the Words
of the Saviour." Labouring extensively in various regions, he made Rome
his chief field. There he wrote two " apologies," formally addressed to the
Emperor Antoninus Pius, to his son Verissimus, and his adopted natural
son Lucius, both of whom Justin designates as philosophers, and to the
sacred Senate. He presents his "address and petition in behalf of those
of all nations who are unjustly hated and wantonly abused, myself being
one of them." He shows the injustices, weaknesses and moral depravities
of heathenism and, in contrast, the simplicity, rationality and moral exalta-
tion of Christianity. He is broad in his sympathies, recognizes the values
in all truth in any religion and attributes religious insight and idealism to
the universal Spirit of Christ, wherever found. To these works he added
a more elaborate work, Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, after the manner
of Plato's Dialogues in which he compares religions on broadly generous
principles and urges Christianity as the fulfillment and consummation for
all of them. He was widely influential, but paid for his faith with his
death in Rome, in 163, and has been known through the centuries as " the
Martyr."

Tatian was another " literary missionary " in Rome. He was an exten-
sive student of religions, but had less sympathy with them than Justin,
who was his teacher. The Old Testament played a large part in his
Christian conversion, just as with Justin. He wrote extensively "Against
the Greeks." His great service was the Diatessaron f the first Harmony of
the Gospels, which gave the second century, and subsequent Christianity, the
orderly story of the ministry of Jesus in this complete form.

All the numerous "Ante-Nicene Fathers" were in varying degrees mis-
sionaries of the pen, as well as of the voice. They were active in, and
from, many centres throughout the empire, and produced scores, if not
hundreds, of works designed, wholly or in part, for the extension of the
saving Gospel. Commodianus among others was writing in Syria. His
instrument was poetical ridicule, Instructions to the Gods of the Heathen,
and An Apologetic Song Against Jews and Gentiles. In Egypt there was
a brilliant succession in Clement, Origen and Athanasius; in Athens,
Quadratus and Aristides. North Africa from the second century began
to be an important intellectual centre of Christianity until it was pre-
eminent for a time in the fourth and fifth centuries. Here the earliest
Latin version of the Scriptures was produced in the second century. Ter-
tullian was the first great light and leader. Converted at the age of forty,
he brought at once his ability and learning, as a lawyer, to the service of
the missionary Gospel. His insight and ardour were remarkable. Almost
at once he was writing to prove the unique superiority of Christianity over
pagan religions. To persecuting Roman powers he said: "Go zealously
on. . . . You will stand higher in favour with the people by sacrificing

50 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Christians. . . . Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust. . . . Yet
your cruelty does not avail. . . . The oftener we are mown down . . . the
more numerous we grow; the blood of Christians is seed." This last
phrase states a principle which became a permanent element of practical
Christian faith, expressed in the motto: "The blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the Church."

Tertullian was followed by Cyprian and Arnobius, in this period ; and
they were preparing the way for the great Augustine, who, as we shall
see, did not feel the missionary fire as did these men. Arnobius was an
especially prolific and forceful writer. Cyprian had written On the Vanity
pf Idols and A Testimony Against the Jews. In Sicca Vaneria, out of a
vicious pagan environment Arnobius produced an elaborate work Against
the Heathen, wherein he quotes at great extent from classic writers.

These must suffice to indicate a widespread use of writing as a means
of extending the faith of the Gospel the salvation of God in Christ.

V.

A TEACHING RELIGION

The unity and intelligence of the Christian following was also promoted
by the use of catechetical schools and classes in all the churches. Chris-
tianity was characterized from the first as a religion of light. It called
for intelligent understanding and ministered enlightenment and rational
growth. Its Founder was Teacher, Preacher, Healer of Diseases. Its
greatest missionary and interpreter declared himself to be a divinely "ap-
pointed preacher, apostle, teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth."
Christianity combatted the superstition and emotionalism that were and
always are so common on the lower levels of human intelligence and
which constitute so large an element in most religions of men. Equally
it avoided the conceit of exclusive Gnosticism so prevalent in the early
centuries when various cults of mystery initiated only those who had passed
through special preparations and claimed to have experienced a mystic
enlightenment. Again Christian morality faced its people with endless
questions of conduct in the practical social relations of a world organized
after pagan ideals and lack of ideals. In a word, Christianity was a teach-
ing religion. Its light was the Life of men. Knowledge was essential to
its growth and to its mission. Immediately after Pentecost we read that
" they who believed were applying their strength to the apostles' teaching."
In the Matthew form of the "Great Commission," followers of the Lord
were told to go into all the world and cause people of all nations to become
learners "make disciples (pupils) of all nations." Then when they had
entered the school through the symbol of baptism the order of the com-
mission was to teach them to observe all the things Jesus had commanded.
The method Jesus used, and contemplated that His religion should use,
above all else, teaching as the way of accomplishing His purpose. It was
: of the very essence of Christianity to become a teaching religion and
to create and promote intelligence and culture. Such a course was neces-
sary to its life in the environment in which it arose. Its nature and its
need combined to make of Christianity, from its first day. a cultural force
with its schools and methods of instruction.

PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE 51

A definitely missionary agency was the training school. The prototype
of this is found in the method of Jesus with His peripatetic "school of
apostles," training under His teaching and direction throughout His public
ministry. Paul followed the example of his Master and had with him,
from the first missionary journey and onward, continuously, groups of
helpers and learners who were training for leadership in the great and
ever-growing movement. As Christianity became more definitely estab-
lished, schools for training its leaders and missionaries were localized in
great centres. In the second century we find important schools in Antioch,
Edessa, Caesarea, Selucia-Ctisephon and elsewhere. In the original schools
for training Christian leadership the Gospel passion for missionary expan-
sion was the primary motive. Theological definition and formulation did
not dominate as so often in later centuries.

Christian men serving in the armies of the Emperors provided an agency
which was extensively effective in spreading Christianity. They were able
to witness to their fellow-soldiers and to the people in the various com-
munities where they were stationed. Upon their retirement from service,
soldiers were often rewarded with allotments of land in new territories
with special facilities and privileges. Christian soldiers are known thus
to have become founders of churches and Christian communities in south-
eastern Europe and probably elsewhere. Among the merchants, traders .
and journeyman labourers who went to and fro in the commercial age
were devoted Christians who used these opportunities for witnessing to
their experiences of the Saviour and to His passion for saving all men.
Here was an important method which cannot be recorded in any detail.
It was wholly unprofessional and few records of such work were made.
It was the continuation of what we read in Acts 8:4: "They who were
scattered abroad by reason of the persecution that arose in connection with
Stephen went everywhere preaching the word." For whatever reasons
they travelled, the early Christians were evangelists. Such was the primary
conception of the "Great Commission" in Matthew, where the imperative
word is "make disciples." The "go" is expressed by a participle: "As
ye go, make disciples." Here is one of the chief secrets of the remarkable
spread of early Christianity, even as it is of the notable spread of Moham-
medanism in modern Africa. It is a desideratum of present-day Christianity.

IN FIRST PERIOD

How extensive Christianity became by the beginning of the fourth
century there are no records that are reliable. Estimates have varied so
widely as to indicate that they are wholly unreliable, all the way from
five million to one hundred million. Harnack, in his notable work, The
Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, has
given the most complete information available. He classifies the territory
known to be affected by Christianity within this period under four divisions.

(1) As areas in which Christianity numbered something like half the
population and was already the prevalent, or at least dominant religion, he
names all Asia Minor, that part of Thrace bordering on Bythinia, Armenia.

(2) Christianity numbered a very large fraction of the people and

52 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

greatly influenced culture and social life, and was a rival of other religions
in Antioch and throughout much of Syria, in Cyprus, in Alexandria and
Egypt, in Rome with all lower and a large part of central Italy, in Pro-
consular Africa and Numidia, in Spain and the islands south of Gaul, and in
such parts of Achaia, Thessaly, Macedonia, as our sources of information
cover.

(3) He finds the extent of Christianity limited, at the opening of the
fourth century, in Palestine, with local exceptions; in Phoenicia, except in
the coast cities where it was more extensive; in Arabia, a section of Meso-
potamia, and probably western Persia. In the remoter sections of the
Grecian provinces, some of the provinces of Asia Minor, upper Italy, while
Christianity had been preached, its following was limited. The same is to
be said of Dalmatia, Pannonia, and the districts of Mauritania and Tripoli.

(4) He finds that Christians were few, if to be found at all, in certain
districts of Italy, middle and northern Gaul, Belgium, Germany, or Rhaetia;
in India, Persia, Scythia, Philistia and the northern and northwestern coast
of the Black Sea.

This summary indicates the marvellous energy and the great success
with which the Christian Gospel had been proclaimed in barely three cen-
turies. The Christian following already numbered many millions within
the Grseco-Roman world and had its adherents in territories lying quite
beyond the imperial regions. If information were available, it is morally
certain that substance would be found for the traditions of the widest range
of effort from the first generation onward, and there would be instructive
explanations for the failure to make results permanent in these wider areas.
As a social influence and as a factor in the religious, ethical, economic, and
political life of the world, Christianity was vastly greater than the propor-
tion of its numbers to the total population. It was a vital, growing and
aggressive force in the midst of decline, decay and disintegration among
all the other factors which go to make up a civilization. Greek and Roman
literature had entered into definite and final decline. Christianity had begun
a career in literature which was already producing documents that were
forceful, influential and worthy, although not yet entering upon a career
of polite literature in which it was in coming centuries to take the lead.
The empire was falling to pieces. There arose powerful statesmen, generals
and emperors, but decay and division progressed. The restless and vigorous
heathen German and Slavonic hordes were beginning their encroachments.
These invaders begin within this period to be an object of Christian
evangelization. Similarly the aggressions of the Parthians are producing
their shocks against the stability of the Mediterranean civilization, and are
beginning to open up doors of opportunity and challenge to the Christian
missionary. Paganism is outgrown and discredited, but retains a powerful
grip on the illiterate and superstitious masses. Great minds with organized
effort and influence undertook to revise and reform pagan religion into a
vital and sustaining force for society. Two distinct efforts on a large
scale failed before the forces of intelligence and the vital power of Chris-
tianity and of other religions of redemption and moral idealism.

Christianity finds itself in competition with several systems that offer

PENTECOST TO CQNSTANTINE 53

to men knowledge of spiritual reality, moral ideals and redemption from
sin and future ruin. The Mystery Religions offer extensive, vigorous and
persistent opposition to Christianity in many countries, and especially in
political, social and cultural circles, while the cult of emperor worship was
from the beginning a serious obstacle to the exaltation of Jesus Christ as
Lord of all. By the end of this period Christianity is definitely winning the
victory as the supreme hope as the religious factor in human life, because,
as Dr. Glover has so well said, " The Christians out-thought, out-lived, and
out-died " the followers of all other faiths. It has withstood local persecu-
tions and antagonisms through the entire period. "Twice the empire had
put forth all its utmost resources for the suppression of Christianity root
and branch. Christians were fined, imprisoned, banished, forced to work in
the mines, executed by burning or being thrown to the lions. The churches
were laid in ruins, the buildings destroyed or confiscated, the Bible burned."
These persecutions under Diocletian and Trajan were far more extensive
and determined than those under Nero and Domitian in the first century.

Literary propaganda and oratorical attacks were levelled against the
Christian movement; campaigns of slander and ridicule were carried on.
"The only response which the Christians made to this opposition and
persecution was heroic sufferings and earnest oral and written argument."
When Constantino terminated the persecution within the empire, in 311,
the seal of official recognition was placed upon Christianity as the supreme
moral influence in the Roman Empire. The triumph has been expressed
by an allegorical illustration of a lamb that went out to meet a lion, a tiger,
and a bear; and not only was not destroyed but returned leading lion, bear,
and tiger captive. Christianity had withstood the lion of political authority,
the bear of social contempt, the tiger of religious hate, and had measurably
mastered them all.

SURVEY OF GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS """

The progress of the missionary movement through this period cannot
be traced in the various geographical units in detail. Typical examples of
the work may be summarized. It should be kept in mind that on Pentecost
there were assembled religious pilgrims "from every nation under heaven."
From among all these there were converts. Moreover, at the three annual
feasts in Jerusalem the pilgrims from various lands would come in contact
with the Gospel, which was making such a stir for several years until the
persecution under Saul of Tarsus checked the activities. These pilgrims
would return to various lands with the story of the Christian Gospel and
work. Christians travelling and changing residence for various economic
reasons were everywhere "preaching the Word" and founding the new
faith. From the going forth of Barnabas and Saul, missionary work was
increasingly carried on by definitely organized effort. Churches planted
in every important city centre assumed responsibility for evangelizing their
own areas throughout the provinces in which they were located.

ASIATIC COUNTRIES

(i) Beginning with Asia, where Jerusalem and Antioch were the first

54 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

centres, the progress varied in different countries. The New Testament
records give us no account of the work of nine of the twelve apostles.
Traditions indicate that most of them found their work eastward. This
would be altogether natural, since here they would find the greatest number
of Hebrew peoples and the most extensive knowledge of the Jewish religion.
Unverifiable and in large part unreliable traditions connect the name of
Thomas with the beginnings of Christianity in Persia, India, and even in
China. This indicates that he did do extensive work in these directions.
Peter's first epistle is written from "Babylon." This is usually taken to
be a cryptic designation of Rome. There is a break of many years in our
knowledge of Peter's work and whereabouts. Being the "apostle to the
Jews," it would be altogether natural that he should have extended his
supervising work into the regions eastward of Palestine, where it is certain
Christian groups were formed in the apostolic period.

In Syria, Antioch was the first and always the greatest centre. Half the
population became Christians, and their influence largely controlled the life
of the city. Both Trajan and Julian failed in their efforts to overthrow
Christianity. Edessa became a second centre and Damascus another. The
Scriptures were translated, missionaries were trained and sent in all direc-
tions, the first Christian meeting-house of which we have definite historic
record was destroyed by flood in 203. Among the great Christian leaders,
Syria was the home of Justin Martyr and Origen.

Ephesus was only the chief of many centres from which Asia Minor
was evangelized, and became a source of aggressive Christianity. Here in
Asia Minor were nurtured the three Gregorys who are reckoned among
the early Fathers. Gregory, the Illuminator, was reared in Cappadocia, a
Parthian trophy of war. He became the great missionary apostle to the
Armenians. After spending fourteen years in prison because of opposition
to his mission, and more especially because of his being the sole survivor
of a Parthian enemy of the Armenian Kings, he won the royal house to
the faith, and Christianity was made the state religion in 302, the first
example of this unfortunate policy. Gregory had many helpers, brought
about the baptism of hundreds of thousands, inspired King Tiradates with
missionary zeal and accompanied him on his royal journeys, and preached
to great multitudes under the patronage of the king. One hundred and
forty thousand of the royal troops were baptized in three days. The
prosperity of the work attracted other missionaries from Cappadocia. At
the end of thirty years of labour, Gregory could reckon four hundred
ordained pastors. Bardaisan of Edessa is the first definitely historic mis-
sionary after the apostles. From him we learn of Christianity already in
Parthia, Media and Bactria. When driven out of Edessa by the Romans,
he laboured in Armenia. About the year 200 the cross supplanted heathen
symbols on Armenian coins. Nouni, an Armenian captive Christian
woman, is said to have introduced the faith in the royal household of
Georgia. Western Persia was included in the Armenian mission, and we
must recall that there were Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and dwellers in
Mesopotamia among those who experienced "the wonderful works of
God" on the day of Pentecost.

PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE 55

Arabia seems never to have been systematically or extensively occupied.
Christian congregations arose informally in a number of places. A council
was held at Bostra in 244, attended by Origen.

Although the claim of the Saint Thomas Christians to have originated
with the apostle of that name cannot be accepted, it is altogether probable
that some heralds of Christ did reach India within the first century.
Farquhar came in his later years to accept the Thomas tradition as highly
probable. Pantaenus left the training 1 school in Alexandria for a mission to
India from 180 to 190. He was probably only one of a line of missionaries
to that region, for he confessedly was following after students of his
already sent to India to propagate the Gospel. How many converts were
won, we cannot know. India is included under a Persian Bishopric at
the end of our period, which suggests evangelization coming into India
through Persia.

AFRICAN AREAS

(2) Turning to Africa, we find " dwellers in Egypt " among those who
heard the Word at Pentecost, and we read also of the Treasurer of Can-
dace, who was baptized by Philip and "went on his way rejoicing," back
to his home in Ethiopia. The tradition that Mark was a worker and
organizer in Egypt is to be credited. In the second century Alexandria
is already an important Christian centre and will long exercise great in-
fluence in the Christian movement. There were twelve parishes with their
pastors and a Christian school whose teacher, Pantaenus, led to Christ his
greatest pupil, Clement. When Pantsenus, joined the Indian mission, Clement
succeeded him as head of the school, to be followed by Origen and then
Athanasius. Here was a great centre of missionary enthusiasm and train-
ing from which eager men went, forth westward and eastward, as well as
through much of Egypt.

From Tertullian we learn that in North Africa, by 202, Christians about
equalled pagans in number. They endured heavy persecutions. They also
developed outstanding intellectual leadership, becoming by the fourth cen-
tury the strongest factor in western Christianity on the intellectual side.
They developed a vigorous literature which was used in propaganda. Here
we meet such names as Tertullian, Cyprian, Arnobius and, to anticipate,
Augustine. Here also Donatus resisted the centralizing and formalizing
tendencies and moral corruptions of the Church, becoming the leader of a
sect against which the central Church, with headship and direction in
Rome, launched a bitter persecution. It may be noted in this connection
also that within this same period Montanus, about the middle of the second
century, started in Phrygia a movement of protest against laxness in dis-
cipline and looseness of living, insisting on the vital, prophetic presence
and activity of the Holy Spirit continuously in the churches. His move-
ment spread into all parts of the Roman Empire. And further, in Rome
itself, in the third century, Novatian inaugurated an extensive movement
for strict discipline and moral earnestness. In all these movements of
protest we find the passion for morality and missions in conflict with the
growing strength of organization and institutionalism.

56 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

(3) From the beginning, Christianity entered Europe in incidental ways.
When Paul followed the vision calling him from Troas into Macedonia,
the most decisive step for the direction of Christian development west-
ward was taken. Europe was to become distinctively the " Christian con-
tinent," and the form and direction of the history of Christendom for two
thousand years was determined when this little band of missionaries crossed
the JEgean and preached to a few women at a "place of prayer" on the
outskirts of Philippi, "which was the chief city, a Roman colony." We
have noted already the extension f Christianity in Macedonia and Greece,
and in the Roman peninsula, and also that it reached Spain, Rumania, and
other regions. It is probable that Paul's plan to go into Spain was partly
carried out. On the testimony c>f Clement, Irenseus and Tertullian, we
know of work there within this period. The missionaries are not known.
Cyprian writes a letter to Christians in Spain in 254. A council at Elvira,
in 305, is said to have been attended by nineteen bishops and twenty-four
other ministers. Still, at this time heathenism was rife.

In the Gallic territory Pothenus .was followed by Irenaeus as leading
missionaries. Other distinguished names are Benignus and Denys. Chris-
tianity became sufficiently extensive to suffer much persecution at Vienne,
Lyons and Autun. It is not until the next period that Christianity is to
become a large factor in this section.

Roman soldiers probably first carried the Christian Gospel into the
British Isles. The source of a very early Celtic Christianity is not known.
The Council of Aries was attended by five British representatives in 314.

Asia Minor, Greece and Italy at the end of this period have come to be
dominant centres of the Christian Church. Their leaders are constructing
the great centralized machine which is to become dominant thereafter, as
it develops into the Hierarchy of Rome. Rome claims supremacy and her
bishop is already coming into the prominence which prepared the way for
the definite establishment of the papacy later. The ministry has become
definitely to be interpreted as a priesthood, of which no trace is found in
the apostolic days. The simple memorial ordinances of the New Testament
are already regarded as sacraments with at least symbolic saving efficacy;
and will thus be a powerful instrument for the dominating policies of the
hierarchy which is to grow up out of the priestly interpretation of the
ministry and the domination of the Roman bishops.

Our period culminates in the recognition of Christianity by Constantine,
in 313, and his efforts to control it in 314, issuing in the union of Church
and State. This political recognition and federation are evidence of the
great power and influence of Christianity. Political authorities find that
they must definitely reckon with it. It has shown that it cannot be sup-
pressed, that it is not dangerous to organized and orderly society. It is
revolutionary in the sense of producing radical changes in the structure,
standards, ideas and conduct of life. The changes which it produces and
promotes are many of them seen to be desirable, and in any case inevitable.
The political state now seeks to make use of this powerfully organized

PENTECOST TO CONSTANTINE 57

religious force and to regulate the speed and extent of the changes it is
effecting. By aligning organized Christianity with itself, the political state
can regulate its activities, use its energies and restrain its too rapid changes.
The state remains the unifying, co-ordinating and directing factor in the
social organism, and religious motives of conviction are made to support
the aims of the secular institution. Such is the political view-point.

This political combination with the religious forces also marks the cor-
rupting of the ideals and the weakening of the power of the Church and the
lessening of its proper influence. Christianity loses, in most of its organ-
ized life, the fundamental concept of Christ's Kingdom as "not of this
world." It enters upon a course the hope of which is to use the power of
the world for the spiritual ends of religion. It is the temptation of " the
kingdoms of this world and the glory of them," which Jesus emphatically
resisted, to which His Church now yields.

VI

SECOND PERIOD: ECCLESIASTICAL EXPANSION AND

CONSOLIDATION

A. D. 313-1000

WITH the union of Church and State under Constantine the mission-
ary movement definitely passed into a new stage. The principle
of expansion was radically changed from that which had guided
the movement thus far. Christianity comes largely to be identified with
the organized Church; and the concept of the spiritual reign of Christ
on earth recedes by being incorporated and submerged in the idea that
the reign of Christ is only through the Church and is to be identified with
the Church. The method of approach to the unevangelized becomes cor-
porate and official rather than spontaneous and individual. The controlling
idea in expansion proceeds along the 'line of making Christianity the official
religion of the various political states, with the patronage, support and
authority of the political rulers to bring about the adherence of the masses
of the people. It is a period in which the objective is the establishing of
a state church in each political unit and the organic incorporation of that
church in the comprehensive universal Church with its central seat in
Rome or in Constantinople for the East, after the separation of the
eastern church from the western. While we find notable exceptions to
this method, it is the general rule. The emphasis is placed on the Church
rather than upon Christ. Salvation is within the gift of the Church, and
all who are incorporated in it are supposed to be secure in the expectation
of reaching the heavenly glory. From this time on, Christianity becomes
a state religion intimately related to political life* This introduces com-
plications and conflicts. The exact relation that should obtain between
Church and State in the union has never to this day been determined.
The vicious principle has been operative in most of the forms of Chris-
tianity to the present day and has all along been a great hindrance to the
spiritual nature and task of the Church.

The chief field of expansion in this period is in Europe. But for some
most interesting and significant efforts in central Asia and China, it would
be proper to characterize this as the period of " The Conversion of Europe,"
keeping always in mind that by "conversion" is meant incorporation in
the Church. All the then more important political divisions of Europe
had been thus "converted" by about the year 1000. There still remained
some smaller states in north and northeast Europe, but by this time other
regions were enlisting the interest of missionary spirits and producing new
activities elsewhere. Hence it is well to make the year 1000 a turning-
point. No one event marks this transition into a new period, but at about

58

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 59

that time a new emphasis comes to characterize the work of missions, and
their chief fields are found in Asia.

UNSOLVED PROBLEMS

The marvellous expansion of Christianity in the first period raised
numerous problems which were not yet solved. It was only natural that
problems of organization, creed, social adjustment and worship should
occupy the time of the majority of the thinking leaders of Christianity.
The centralizing" tendency and the developing hierarchy, together with the
increasingly secular concept of the Church's function, made it inevitable
that the greatest ability of the Church would be devoted to its internal
problems rather than its external expansion. Professor Moore, in his
monumental study, West and Hast, has clearly stated an important fact in
the growth of human movements, with special application to the Church
and its missions. A period of rapid expansion is repeatedly followed by
an arrest of outgoing energy, while the chief resources are applied to the
task of consolidating the gains already made and unifying the life and
thought which have been added to the Christian following. Then a new
period of expansion will ensue, to be followed by another period of arrest
and co-ordination. This process, of course, works in varying degrees. It
is not necessary that it should always be operative. Now, in our own
time, when Christianity has become a world- wide force and a universal
factor in the life of humanity, its varying stages and forms ought to leave
freedom for at least unbroken expansive movements. Yet we do witness
at this time a concentration on the problems of the unity of the various
divisions of Christianity and the problems of the organization of the
thought, worship and activities of Christianity. Conferences on faith and
order attract more attention and bring together many more of the recog-
nized leaders than do conferences for the consideration of the mission-
ary task.

MOVEMENTS AFFECTING MISSIONS

The capacity for seeing and accepting the duty of evangelizing the world,
as well as the resources and opportunities for undertaking this work, must
be largely affected by all other conditions and movements within the life
of the people. From Constantine for hundreds of years was a period of
great and complicated changes in the conditions throughout Europe, and
especially within the territory of the Roman Empire. Revolutionary
changes were going on, reaching to the depths and affecting the whole
social structure, and reaching: in their influence every part of the European
continent and beyond.

There was, first of all, the decay and downfall of the Roman Empire
itself. Its definite division into Eastern and Western Empires left both
sections in a state of weakness, and subjected them to powerful forces
from without. This breaking of the political power of the empire prob-
ably saved the now largely secularized Church from completely submerg-
ing its spiritual mission in the effort to establish a world-wide civil rule.
It made evident, to those who had eyes to see, the weakness of depending

60 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

upon human rule and authority for the propagation of a spiritual cause.
It uncovered the incompleteness and failure of the work of Christianizing
the territory that was already claimed by the Church; for in the chaotic
conditions, when coercive restraints were less possible, the depravities of
human nature manifested themselves in immoralities and corruptions which
indicated how very far from the standards of Christ was the life in the
Christendom of the day. The inability of the political authorities to
enforce the wishes of the ecclesiastical authorities prevented the Church
from becoming absolute in its control over all Christians. Opportunity was
left for free operation by the Nestorians and other missionary sects in
Asia, while also there was thus left some opportunity for independent
operation in Europe.

The invasion of Southern Europe and Northern Africa by the migrating
Vandals, Goths and Mongol-Huns brought into the very heart of the Chris-
tian territory a new missionary responsibility. These heathen hordes
brought their own corruptions and superstitions which had to be counter-
acted by Christian effort. The invaders must be evangelized as a means
of self-preservation. As these heathen hordes were progressively incor-
porated in the Church, it was not without modification of ideas and forms.
The newcomers added vigour and purpose to the life of the Church and
largely stimulated the Christianizing of Central and Northern Europe.

The division of the empire into Western and Eastern promoted both
directly and indirectly a separate doctrinal and organic development of
Christianity in the two sections. In any case the difference between the
Latin mind and the Greek mind would have caused marked differences.
Under the political conditions the divergences were increased and acceler-
ated. Definite rivalries grew up between the two divisions. The Patri-
arch of Constantinople became increasingly independent of the Pope in
Rome, and the followers of the two grew further and further apart, while
consolidation went on within both camps. Before the end of this period,
the Pope is excommunicating the Patriarch, yet final separation is post-
poned until the eleventh century. This major division enters quite defi-
nitely into the missionary activities of the period, as we shall see.

With the breakdown of the old empire, and the migrations of the
peoples in Eastern and into Southern Europe, and across the Mediter-
ranean into Northern Africa, and the intellectual and social awakening of
Central and Northern Europe operated to introduce a period of readjust-
ment of political barriers, rearrangement of tribes and the integration of
European states. While the older tribal names and territories continued
in considerable measure to influence the new movements, we have in this
period extensive rearrangements moving quite definitely on toward the
divisions which mark the modern European states. Since the missionary
work now proceeded by way of establishing a church which was expected
to be co-extensive with each political state, and then incorporating the
state church in the Catholic Church, the integrations referred to largely
determined the times, methods and territorial limits of the various mis-
sionary undertakings. The political turmoil and the wars, so numerous
as to be practically continuous, greatly affected the form and growth of

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 61

the Church. By the seventh century it was often felt that the blessing
and support of the Pope was necessary to the right of kings to their
authority and pledged divine power to their rule. In Italy, the Lom-
bards especially, with their heathen independence still working strongly,
antagonized the claims of the Pope. When Pippin, the Prankish ruler,
gave asylum to the refugeeing Pope, he was in turn crowned and anointed
by him, making him a spiritual son of the Church, and a civil agent of
the Pope. He invaded the Lombard territory, destroyed their power and
established the Pope as direct ruler in Central Italy. From this time, 755,
the Church through its head became a definite political power and claimed
the right of supremacy over all the political states throughout the world,
a claim which continues to affect the entire policy of the Roman Church.
This idea enters largely into the missionary history from this time. When
the great Frankish king, Charlemagne, set about constructing his empire
and identified himself with the Christian movement, he supported the
claims of the Pope in Italy. In turn, he accepted his crown at the hands
of the Pope on Christmas Day, 800, having previously accepted baptism
with great pomp and had his armies baptized en masse. Now the idea of
the Holy Roman Empire was born and entered upon its career which
was to affect the political and religious history of Europe for hundreds
of years.

In another part of the world a new movement arose in the seventh
century which was to be a major factor in world history. In 622 Moham-
med fled from Mecca to Medina. In 632 he returned to make Mecca the
capital of a religious church and a political empire, the two more inti-
mately identified than has ever been true within Christendom. This new
power entered at once upon a most vigorous and successful campaign of
expansion. Within a single century the Mohammedan armies had swept
with irresistible power and had established their rule throughout Arabia,
northward to the Caspian and Black Seas, swept irresistibly through Egypt,
and across all North Africa. Thence going into Spain they incorporated
that peninsula in the Mohammedan Church and their armies were pouring
through the Pyrrennes to invade Gaul and France when they were stopped
by Charles Martel in the battle of Tours, in 732, exactly one hundred
years after the establishment in Mecca. This phenomenal rise of a new
religion and a new empire had given them possession of all the original
territory of Christianity. While Mohammedan authority tolerated Chris-
tian churches, it was only upon the basis of their definite acceptance of
the political rule of the Mohammedan masters, of paying heavy ransom
and continuous oppressive taxes, and with the prohibition of all efforts
to win converts beyond their own following on penalty of death. This
movement either wholly suppressed or seriously checked all Christian
propaganda within the territory controlled by the Arab rulers. The spirit
of expansion could not be wholly suppressed, but found its outlet mainly in
regions which were new territory for the Christian Gospel.

Furthermore, the rise of a new and aggressive empire, pushing its limits
ever into new territory, and impinging upon Europe at a time of disinte-
gration and confusion, could not but arouse a violent antagonism and great

62 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

bitterness. The identity of Church and Empire under Mohammedanism,
and the growing identification of the two within Christendom, served
further to put the new movement into an attitude of hatred and conflict
with Christendom, which have continued to affect the spirit on both sides
unto the present day. Operating in this antagonism was also basal race
distinction. Christianity more and more came to be the religion of the
European branches of the Aryan race, while Mohammedanism was at
first Semitic and then Mongolian also. In this way Mohammedanism
has affected the missionary spirit and task of Christianity for thirteen
centuries.

In considering all these secular and more general religious movements
one cannot but raise the question of what effect the continued faithful-
ness and energetic activity of Christianity which we meet in the first
century might have had on these movements and on the history of human-
ity, if only they could have proceeded and multiplied in all directions.
Such a reflection is futile and quite useless, except in so far as it may
stimulate the Christian churches of the present era to purification of spirit
and method, and to faithful devotion to their task of making the world
genuinely Christian; and of rightly understanding and responding to all
the various secular movements of our own time.

CHANGED OBJECTIVE AND METHOD

Under the welter of all these conflicting currents within and upon the
Europe of that period, while vaguely the aim of establishing the reign of
Christ among men remained, the Kingdom ideas were increasingly ob-
scured by the glorification of the Church. The immediate aim and direct
effort was to make Christianity the state religion wherever this was pos-
sible. Heathen religions were treated with varying degrees of toleration
or of intolerance. In the main the religious rights of individuals were
ignored and the truth that a man is Christian only so far as he is volun-
tarily and intelligently so came rarely into clear recognition or into prac-
tical operation. There were those, many of them, devoted to the impartation
of personal salvation and the cultivation of spiritual life and values; but
these acted individually or in small sects, under the disfavour and ban of
the Church. The Church is no longer an organization serving as an
..instrument for the growth of the Kingdom of God, but identifies itself
with the Kingdom. As a function of the Church, missions became only
one task of its work, and instead of being the main business, constitutes a
progressively inferior part of that work. Theology becomes more impor-
tant than spiritual life; dogma, organization, liturgy, ceremonial acts
are regarded as the essential matters without which Christian life is re-
garded as ineffective if at all possible. This is the period of doctrinal
controversies, of the great Church Councils in which under strenuous and
bitter debate it was determined what men must believe and practice. With-
the growth of the priestly interpretation of the ministry the missionaries
take their place in the highly hierarchical orders; and, unless forceful and
capable men press for appointment to this work, missionaries are apt to
be men of second or third rate ability. Missions share in the dominant

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 63

professionalism of the ministry. From 398 laymen were formally pro-
hibited from preaching. Where salvation was believed to be effected only
through the application of sacraments, which must be officially authorized
in order to be valid, there was little inspiration for a layman to concern
himself with the lost.

Mass conversions are necessary for the rapid inclusion of political
units. Missions therefore become nationalistic rather than individualistic,
both in their effort and in their additions. The Scotch missions continue to
be largely individualistic in both their initiation and their operation; the
Roman missions are predominantly -of. course not exclusively nationalistic ;
the Nestorians pursue a method somewhat between these two.

Agents for the missionary work include, (i), voluntary individual work-
ers. These are discouraged by the official Church and grow fewer in
number. ^Naturally, there is more freedom the further one is separated,
geographically or spiritually, from the control of Rome. There are sec-
tions, particularly in the British Isles, which retain through most of this
period a large measure of political and religious independence. (2) There
are those definitely appointed by the Church for this service. These are
largely within the Monastic orders which arise in this period. The oldest
of these are the Benedictines, from 529. These orders increasingly become
the great agency for the extension and unification of the Catholic Church.
Their monasteries, located in the midst of heathen territory and primitive
conditions, become the nucleating and constructive centres for creating
and nurturing a growing civilization and culture. With the convents asso-
ciated with them, they taught the rude tribes of Central and Northern
Europe, and the invading Goths and Huns, the arts and methods of civilized
and ordered life. They established schools, especially for training religious
workers, produced the beginnings of literature, taught farming and better
living accommodations. They were really planting such Christianity as
they themselves had and believed in, and were making it a central and
unifying factor in the new life which was growing up in Europe. The
monastery at lona, under Columba, which did so much for Scotland, was
not until the end of this period connected with the Roman Church. (3)
Civil rulers and military powers were very extensively employed for this
work of converting Europe. Clovis, Charles Martel, Vladimir, and
Charlemagne are only the outstanding examples of a large number of kings
who brought their influence and power to bear upon their peoples to sweep
them into the Church.

The means employed are suggested by the agents who accomplished the
work. There was still much preaching, but for the most part it was less
spiritual, vital and ethical than formerly. There was diligent promulgation
and application of the ceremonial ideas and sacraments, catechetical instruc-
tion in the more characteristic doctrines and claims of the faith. It was
necessary to rely chiefly on these peaceful methods in territory as yet
beyond the reach of the more massive influence of the great organization
and the use of compulsion. Such methods were employed also to follow
up and incorporate the results gained by the civil and military powers. It
came to be the rule for newly acquired subjects and territory of a Chris-

64 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

tian ruler to be incorporated into the Church. These must then receive
at least a measure of instruction, orderly adjustment and provision for
their religious needs in their new relationship. Literature found its place,
but was relied upon far less than in the earlier and in later periods. There
was still the use of Scripture translation, but Latin became the sacred
language for all the territory of the Roman Church, and by the end of
this period it is no longer officially desired that the people shall have the
Scriptures in their own tongues. There is some apologetic literature, but
it is nothing like as elaborate and thorough as in the second and third
centuries. For the most part it takes the form of fragmentary ecclesias-
tical history. Wonders and signs were tremendously impressive upon the
untutored minds of peoples still retaining many primitive superstitions.
That there was much more or less innocent use of such signs to win the
credulous and to induce their acceptance of the rule of the Church is only
what would be expected, however we may now deplore it. The structure
of society made it natural that when the heads of families or clan groups
^accepted the faith, the entire group would become Christian as a matter
of course.

In all this there was much of accommodation to the traditions and
customs of the peoples who were being evangelized. This involved no
little of compromise with heathen cults and worship. The annual religious
festivals, many of the religious practices, and in some cases even the
heathen idols, were reinterpreted in terms of the Christian ideas and
continued within the churches.

SURVEY Of PROGRESS

While we have been considering mainly the methods and activities
within Europe, it has been indicated that there was also work in other
continents. The main features of the achievements will be best seen by
looking at each continent in turn.

i. Asia. Recall the situation at the close of the first period, especially
the union of Church and State in Armenia in 302. This secularizing of
Christianity as a state function continues, but never developed to the same
extent as in the west. The ecclesiastical system is less elaborately devel-
oped and also fails to become so dominant as in the west, and there is
more freedom for personal initiative. Far the most important factor in
missionary work is the Nestorian Church. While their ideas of the person
of Christ were defective and they were hampered by the political entangle-
ments of the Church, their missionary zeal remained through this period
more vital and unselfish and their methods rather more in harmony with
the New Testament.

(i) The work of the first period had been conducted in the Greek
language. In 387 Armenia fell a victim to the Persian ambition and was
divided between Syria and Persia. For the most part the Christians were
in the Syrian, sector. They were now prohibited from using their Greek
Scriptures and were not familiar with the Syriac. They needed an Armen-
ian Bible and literature. This was provided by Mesrop, 440, who invented
an alphabet for the purpose and, with the help of Isaac the Great, trans-

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 65

lated the Bible and began a somewhat extensive literature. In 451, when
the Persian power came to include most of Armenia, Zoroastrianism
became the official religion and Christians were persecuted. From Armenia,
Christianity was carried into Georgia, Grusia, and thence into Colchia and
other regions about the Caspian Sea. In 651 all this territory passed under
Mohammedan power and missionary activities ceased, except as missionaries
went beyond the range of that power.

(2) Christians were fairly numerous in Western Persia in our first
period, but it was not until the fifth century that we have much definite
information concerning them. They suffered terrible persecutions from
343 to 378, and again from 418 to 448. Nestorian refugees came there
from farther west in 435, and the Persian Christians identified themselves
with that church. Nisibis became the centre of church life and missionary
activity, with a training school for missionaries, succeeding Edessa. With
missionaries drawn from this and the older schools in Seleucia, Bagdad
and Edessa, missionary operations were extended as far as India, Mon-
golia, and China. For approximately three centuries the Nestorians
furnished an inspiring example of missionary zeal and effort. The
Mohammedan rulers mastered Persia in 651 and stopped all evangeliza-
tion within that country; but the missions continued beyond the borders
of Persia till near the end of this period, and were resumed in the next
period.

(3) Arabia, of course, remains largely unevangelized. Its neglect and
the fact that such Christianity as was there remained unaggressive, left
the field free for the rise of Mohammed and Islam, after which Christianity
was barely allowed to exist. We read of a request already in the third
century from one of the emirs that Origen would come and teach Chris-
tianity to his tribe. In 244 Origen attended a theological council at Bostra.
In the first century of this period" the Emperor Constantine sent Theophilus
on a political mission into Arabia, and he succeeded in having Christian
churches built at Aden, Dafur, a tribal capital, and on the Persian Gulf.
This promising beginning was not followed up.

(4) The earliest missions to India were from Syria, Alexandria, and
then from Persia. There is no history of the earlier efforts and successes.
Cosmas Indicopleustes, as his name suggests, was an adventurous traveller
who was greatly interested in Christianity. He published a Topographic,
Christianica in which he told of the Christian work along the Malabar
Coast, east coast and Ceylon, and other islands. A merchant of Jerusalem,
Thomas, visited India and led a considerable number of missionaries there
as early as the first half of the fourth century. There are indications of a
considerable number of Christians in India, and from the higher classes.
The St. Thomas Christians in east India profess to trace their history to
the Apostle Thomas, but may take their name from this merchant. Modern
efforts to incorporate them in the Catholic and Episcopal communions,
and the impacts of modern religious ideas, have divided them into four
separate units.

(5) The greatest achievement of the Nestorians in all their missionary
history was in China. There were Christian bishops of Maru and Tus as

66 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

early as 334, and of Samarkand in 503. Persian monks had brought from
China the secrets of silk culture by 500. The famous Nestorian tablet
unearthed at Si-gnan-fu in 1625, at first discredited as an invention, is
now recognized as an authoritative account of Nestorian missions con-
ducted in China from 635 to 781. Their most noted missionary, Olopun,
was only one of the large number who devoted themselves to this enter-
prise. The monument states briefly the doctrine of God, sin, the coming of
Christ and some of His teaching, and praises the missionaries. It then
sketches the progress of the Nestorians in China to its date (781). The
Emperor (Tai Tsung) had highly favoured Olopun; praised his teachings
and had his Scriptures translated for the imperial library; and desired
for the religion "free course throughout the empire." This favour was
continued by Kao Tsung, one of the most notable of the Tang dynasty,
who made Olopun "Lord of the Great Law for preservation of the state."
" The religion spread through the ten circuits." " Monasteries filled a hun-
dred cities." For a few years there was loss of favour. Buddhists insti-
gated persecution. Monasteries and churches were injured and some
destroyed. " But there were . . . noble men from the golden regions, all
eminent priests, keeping themselves aloof from worldly influences, who
joined together in restoring the mysterious net, and in rebinding its meshes
which had been broken." Imperial favour was restored and continued.
The inscription praises each ruler in succession from 713, and almost makes
a Christian of " Chien-Chung (780-783), our present Emperor, sage and
Spirit-like" whose beneficent influence, enlisting the favour of providence
in nature and producing peace and prosperity, is attributed to the " Illus-
trious Religion's " " power and .operation."

Then came a change in dynasties, naturally attended by a spirit of nation-
alism. The Nestorians had remained a foreign religion. The Patriarch
of Babylon was their earthly head. The monument has the names of sixty
Chinese priests, written in Chinese, but the names of Adam, the vicar-
general and head of all the Christians in China, who erected the monument,
John Joshua, the Nestorian patriarch in Babylon, and other foreign priests
all appear in Syriac, which was in China, as everywhere, the " sacred
language" of Nestorianism, and a "sacred language" is a fatal hindrance
to the full success of any mission.

When the Emperor of a new dynasty, Wu Tsung, led a patriotic restora-
tion of Confucianism as the state religion, he ordered the destruction of
Buddhist and Christian monasteries, required all their monks to return to
the ways and duties of civil life, and commanded all foreigners to leave
off religious efforts. The statement of a Mohammedan author that Chris-
tianity was extinct in China in 987 is prejudiced testimony. It professes
to depend upon the story of a dejected monk who said he was the only
one to escape slaughter out of a group of six sent from Persia, to "bring
the affairs of Christianity in that country into order." While the Christian
following was thus disorganized and repressed, it was not wholly destroyed
as a distinct group for probably two centuries longer. From this Nestorian
mission certain religious ideas entered as a permanent influence in the life
of parts of China.

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 67

There is no evidence of efforts in this period to evangelize Moham-
medans. There doubtless were such individual efforts, but giving the
Christian message and life to them did not come to be a recognized oppor-
tunity. On the other hand, the Mohammedans won multitudes of Chris-
tians, chiefly by compulsion. They suppressed heathen worship wherever
they went. They became masters of a great territory, as we have seen
above. They twice besieged Constantinople, which was later to fall into
their hands and become the capital of empire and religion.

2. Africa. Christianity continued to. flourish in Egypt and North Africa
in this period until the Mohammedan invasion and subjugation.

(1) In Egypt aggressiveness was stopped as a matter of course when
the Arabs came into power. Christianity was not wholly stamped out,
but the Coptic Church offered poor resistance and, although it continues
to the present day, it is not an inspiring example of the Christian faith.
The work in Alexandria, distinguished by Pantaanus, Clement and Origen
in the first period, was made* even more famous by Athanasius in this
period. Its chief significance, however, is no. longer for expansion, but
for orthodoxy. That the Christians here yielded in some measure to the
tendency of the time to propagate the faith by secularistic means is evi-
denced by their accepting from the Emperor, Arcadius, a heathen temple
to be converted into a Christian church in Alexandria. The unchristian
spirit of this method is seen in the fact that they desecrated its sanctuary
and made a public display of the sacred objects, for the purpose of arousing
contempt for the nature of the things which the pagans had used in their
worship. This was poor psychology and bad religion. The heathen retali-
ated in force, torturing and cruelly slaying many Christians in the Serapeum,
their most splendid temple. The Emperor then retaliated by converting the
Serapeum also into a church.

(2) Abyssinia, which is usually identified with Ethiopia, had some
knowledge of the Gospel from the beginning. No definite efforts were
made for its evangelization until the beginning of the fourth century. Two
brothers, Frumentius and Edessius, whose home was in Tyre, on a voyage
through the Red Sea were captured by the Ethiopians when they put in
for water. They alone of the company of the ship were spared, being very
young and attractive. They were taken into the service of the court.
When the king was dying, soon afterward, he provided for their liberation,
but they were persuaded to remain to instruct the prince. Frumentius took
the lead and began the propagation of Christianity, with support from
Rome. Upon the majority of the prince, the Christian brothers left.
Frumentius informed Athanasius at Alexandria of the opportunity in
Abyssinia. Athanasius took in the situation with imagination and zeal,
assumed the responsibility for ordaining Frumentius as bishop, procured
helpers and sent him back to become the missionary founder. In the fifth
century, numbers of monks from Egypt came in, introduced an alphabet
and writing in Ethiopic, and translated the Scriptures into it. "Chris-
tianity was firmly established," and "has stood for more than a millennium
and a half, a veritable Gibraltar in the midst of great seas of pagan Mo-
hammedanism." The Church in Abyssinia has latterly had the patronage

68 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

of the Roman Catholic Church in an effort to affiliate and incorporate it
with that church. This effort is encouraged by the present Italian over-
lordship of the country. Christianity was also planted in some way in
Nubia in the early part of this period, and continued in strength for almost
a thousand years. In the fourteenth century the king accepted and enforced
the Moslem faith.

(3) In this period until the devastation by the Moslem armies and the
domination of the Arabic rule, Christianity continued to flourish in North
Africa. It was, however, seriously divided by the strife between the
Donatists and the adherents of the Roman Church. The former were an
aggressive missionary force working vigorously for the conversion of the
barbarians, and with distinct success. The element affiliated with Rome
attained great intellectual vigour, produced extensive literature, and
wielded almost determinative influence in the doctrinal and ecclesiastical
development of the Roman Church. This element was far less interested
in missions to the heathen, and consumed the energy which should have
gone in that direction in efforts to compel the Donatists to accept Roman
rule and conform to its ritual. The great Augustine used the words of
Jesus in the parable, " Go out and compel them to come in," to urge that
civil and religious authorities should force all Christians into the fold of
the Roman Church. In spite of this division and of the severe repression
by the Mohammedan power, "it took Islam nearly eight hundred years to
completely displace Christianity in North Africa."

3. Europe. The general conditions under which Christianity took pos-
session of this continent have been outlined before. Not only was prac-
tically all Europe brought into the Church by 1000; forms and conceptions
of doctrine, worship and work were developed that continue to influence
Christianity powerfully unto the present day. There are three sources of
missionary agency and activity from which Christianity attacked the large
areas that were awaiting it with the opening of this period. These over-
lapped in the territory undertaken, in the time of their occupancy of differ-
ent sections, and in their ecclesiastical relations. The forces from the
different directions were sometimes in open antagonism, sometimes inde-
pendent but not in opposition, and sometimes co-operating. The general
movement was toward unifying all the separate sections into the one Roman
Church, except in Southeastern Europe, where the Eastern Church gained
the ascendancy.

(i) From the eastern territory of the Church several successive waves
of missionary endeavour swept into Eastern Europe. Constantinople was
the great centre.

In the third and fourth centuries the Goths captured Christians in Asia
Minor who became missionaries to their captors; and this led to direct,
organized efforts for their evangelization. Theophilus was a Gothic bishop
in the Nicean Council. He trained Ulfilas, who became the great "Apostle
of the Goths," and laboured among them for almost half a century, till 388.
He gave them a written language in order that he might translate the
Bible into their tongue. It is a remarkable and significant fact that the
vast majority of the written languages of the world were first reduced to

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 69

writing by missionaries in order that the people might have the Word of
God. Christianity, through its missions, has been far and away the greatest
agency of culture and civilization in human history. Ulfilas omitted from
his Bible the accounts of the Jewish wars in Kings and Chronicles, con-
vinced that these people needed no divine sanction for their already too
warlike tendencies. The greatest preacher of that age, John Chrysostom
("golden-mouthed"), gave to this Gothic mission his most enthusiastic
support. The Gothic Christians became Arian in theology, and with
their invasion swept a tide of Arianism with heathen corruptions across
Europe to Spain and delayed the going of missionaries from Italy to the
British Isles and North Europe.

Another great missionary in the Danube regions was Severinus. His
origin is unknown. Pressed with inquiries about it once, he replied: "If
you take me to be a runaway slave, get ready money to redeem me when
my master comes to ask me back." There was a tradition that he was of
royal blood and had fled from some court on account of crime. He had
a hermitage in the neighbourhood of Vienna where the barbarian invasion
devastated the Christianity already developed there from Rome. With
great ability, self-denial, and courage Severinus met the barbarians, coun-
selled the older natives, mediated between the two groups, vigorously
antagonized the Arian type of Christianity, stimulated the towns in their
defense against the invaders when there was hope of success, always, in
all ways, with his masterful personality sought to inculcate the spirit of
Christ and to extend Christianity. He came to be revered as a saint and
was reputed to work miracles. Eew men have exercised greater influence
than this noble missionary, who died in 482. In him in this region we
have an example of the overlapping of operations from Constantinople and
Rome.

Cyril and Methodius, brothers from Thessalonica, educated in Constanti-
nople, are the great missionary pioneers to the Slavic peoples of Central
Europe. They began in the Crimea with the Chazars and extended their
labours to the Bulgars (both of these Turanian tribes). They extended
their work also to the Moravians and Bohemians. They gave to these
Slavs their first written language and began for them a literature with
the Bible as their first book. Methodius was a painter and used his art
to aid in the evangelization. Cyril was the preacher and the statesman.
Christianity was introduced into Bulgaria by the sister of the King Bogoris,
who had come to the knowledge of it while a captive in Constantinople.
He compelled his subjects to accept baptism or death. Cyril and Methodius
felt the appeal to give the knowledge of Christ to this barbarous people.
Bogoris had Methodius paint the walls of his great palace. When the work
was completed and the hall filled with the company of the king's retainers
the painting was uncovered. It portrayed a rather lurid scene of the last
judgment, with realistic representation of the rewards of believers in
heaven and the torments of the unbelievers in hell. The king and some
of his courtiers, who had resisted personal adherence to the Gospel up to
this time, accepted baptism, 861. A pagan revolt was suppressed and
Christianity definitely established as the religion of the state.

70 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The missionaries found readier response from the Moravian king, who
encouraged them in the propagation of Christianity in his state. About
870 the Bohemian Duke, Borziwoi, fell under the influence of Methodius
at the Moravian court. With thirty of his attendants he accepted baptism
and opened the way for the Christianizing of the Bohemians. Objection
was made in Rome to the spreading of Christianity among the Slavs in
the Greek language and forms. Cyril and Methodius were called to account
in Rome, where Cyril died. Methodius succeeded in gaining the approval
of the Pope upon his work in general, although not upon his giving the
Bible in the vernacular. He was made archbishop of Moravia and per-
mitted to return to his work. This was, however, only the beginning of
a bitter conflict over the use of the barbarian tongues instead of the Latin
for the propagation of the faith. Methodius was again in Rome to contend
for his right before Pope John VIII., and again won permission to continue
his work, but did not escape opposition from Roman representatives.

These two remarkable brothers must be credited with giving type and
direction to Christianity for all the Slavic peoples, including the Russians,
to whom Christianity went as an indirect result of the work which these
had done. Moravia and Pannonia were subsequently overrun by heathen
Bohemians and were reckoned heathen territory in the tenth century, when
they became a mission field of the Roman Church.

Russia is much the most extensive branch of the Greek type of Chris-
tianity. It was not evangelized at all until after 860, while most of the
work falls in the tenth century. The Princess Olga had been attracted to
Christianity and went to Constantinople to learn more of it. She accepted
the faith in 955 and returned for a vain effort to win her son, Swiatoslav.
She was more successful with her grandson, Vladimir. His adherence was
sought by missionaries of Mohammedanism, Judaism, and both the Greek
and Roman types of Christianity. After hearing representatives of all
four, he said that they all made out a good case, that he would send mes-
sengers to investigate the working of religion in the lands dominated by
each. His approval finally fell to the Greeks. He deferred his baptism
till the Emperor Basil gave him his sister Anne to add to the several hun-
dred wives whom he already boasted. She was only one of a number of
noble women who became the instruments through which royal husbands
were led to acceptance of the Christian faith and became its patrons and
promoters. Even yet the Emperor felt that it was unbecoming in him
mildly to accept a new religion. He first besieged the Crimean city Kherson
and captured it, it is said by means of information concerning its water
supplies conveyed to him by an arrow bearing a message, from within the
city, at the instigation of a bishop. Returning to his capital, Kieff, (988)
he proclaimed Christianity as the religion of his country, destroyed the
national idol, had his army baptized wholesale and proceeded vigorously
and rapidly to carry into effect his proclamation. Missionaries followed
for the instruction and organization of the people within the Church. They
had the Bible, liturgies and other literature of Cyril and Methodius ready
for their work.

Poland became superficially Christian through the influence of another

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 71

princess, the Bohemian wife of the Duke Mieczylas. Ten years later she
died and the duke now married the German princess Oda, who was a
Roman Christian, and at her instance he identified his church with Rome.
Efforts were made by Piligrim to win Hungary, but the success was small.
It remained for Prince Stephen, 997 to 1038, to encourage Roman mission-
aries who succeeded in identifying it with that church.

(2) Early Christianity in Ireland and Scotland was largely independent,
at most only loosely connected with any general church organization. We
have already seen that the method by which Christianity first came into
the British Isles is not known. That there were churches here and there
is certain. The Christianity which we know but vaguely in origin or
order in the British Isles in the earlier days was left unprotected when
the Roman armies withdrew and the heathen Angles came in. The Chris-
tians were scattered, and left but traces or remnants here and there. Some
crossed into Ireland and founded Christian centres at Wicklow and Wex-
ford, whence they made some showing along all the east of Ireland. It
was when Martin of Tours had taught the monks the holy way of mis-
sions that a new Christian influence entered the Islands, by way of Corn-
wall, south Wales and Ireland. A Briton trained in Rome and adopting
Martin as hero and model, about 400, built a church and monastery near
Whithern and made it a base of missions reaching all the way to the
Scotch Highlands, where the wild Picts beat back their efforts. But
Ninian had replanted Christianity, had won King Ceretic, of Strathclyde,
to patronize the faith, had established friendship with Irish Christianity
and left his name to posterity to conjure with in legend and story. In
common with *he Irish preachers, he had compromised with customs of
Druids and other pagan cults. One writer puts it that "they conciliated
the Druids . . . and so strove not to beat down the ancient civilization,
but to win it for Christ." "The Bards were won, and induced to attach
their schools to the monasteries, to tune their harps to Irish Christian
hymns. In return, their, custom of shaving the front half of the head . . .
became the distinguishing mark of the Irish missionary. The kings were
won and a relative of each installed as head of the monastery of the clan,
and consecrated as bishop. The old holy wells were not filled up, but . . .
the people . . . were led to the old familiar scene of worship, there to be
baptized." Kentigern is the apostle of West Britain. Son of a Welsh
nun by an English king who had captured her, he was trained in the faith
and took up the work of Ninian. Opposed by the heathen Welsh king at
Carlisle, he founded a monastery near the Dee which soon had a thousand
monks, with the approval of David, Welsh Archbishop. This he turned
over to Asaph, a convert of his, while he returned at the call of a new king
whose capital he named Glasgow. He laboured widely all his life and wells
named for him were found in Northumbria. Once in his tours he met
Columba, with whom he exchanged staffs.

IRELAND

We go back here a bit to connect this West British Christianity more
definitely with that of Ireland. We must keep in mind that legend gilds

72 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIOlS

much of these fascinating stories. Early in the fifth century a youth
still in his teens was captured from a region on the border of England
and Scotland and carried to Ireland. Escaping, he returned to his home,
which seems to have been a Christian home, with his father holding a
position of leadership in the local church. Patrick now became an earnest
Christian on his own account, and there was born in his heart a yearning
to evangelize his Irish masters. He boldly undertook the task and
achieved remarkable success. He adopted somewhat dramatic methods,
made extensive use of music, held meetings in the open air and in such
large places of assembly as were available. He and his helpers travelled
on foot and evangelized the entire island. He thus inaugurated a move-
ment that continued with vigour and became a source for missionary
evangelism to regions in Gaul, Friesland and the Germanic regions. He
established a monastic order, had. an organized group of twelve assistants,
and enlisted many workers and gave the rudiments of Christian training
and culture. He spent several years himself in Gaul, and it is claimed by
the authorities of the Roman Church that he definitely identified himself
with it and received its ordination, to become an archbishop. This claim
is controverted by important authorities. In any case, it seems fairly
clear that the Irish Christianity retained its independence and evangelical
character for some three hundred years before it was definitely brought
into complete loyalty to the Roman Church, of which for more than a
thousand years it has now been one of the most enthusiastic children.

SCOTLAND AND TH MONASTERY ON IONA

One of the greatest Irish monks was Columba, who was inspired with
a desire to evangelize Scotland. He founded a monastery on the island
of lona, in 563, and for thirty-four years led a masterful work of evan-
gelization, and Christian development. His followers continued his work
until it was brought into harmony with the Roman Church early hi the
eighth century. Even after that, for a century longer, the churches in
Scotland and North England continued to function with a great measure
of independence. Their missionaries as far as possible preached in the
common tongue, founded monasteries and schools, taught farming and the
arts of civilization so far as they had themselves learned them, and were
thus the promoters of settled and progressive Christian civilization. They
emphasized genuine faith, pure living and personal religion. Their work-
ers were of good birth and noble spirit. Besides the very extensive evan-
gelization of Scotland, they laboured successfully in northeast England,
where they came into a long conflict with the Christianity which was
arising from Roman sources in the same region. On the continent, their
labours were a strong factor in South Germany, the strongest influence
in northern France, and extensive in Helvetia (Switzerland and Tyrol).
Two of their most distinguished and successful continental missionaries
were Columbanus and Gallus, the latter drowned in the lake whose name
perpetuates his martyrdom. Columbanus was a great scholar and writer
of the monastic school at Bangor. When already forty years old he led
a band of twelve missionaries into Burgundy, where he founded a mon-

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 73

astery and laboured twelve years. He inculcated moral standards that
so rebuked court and clergy as to result in his banishment. He went on
to Lake Constance and founded another monastery at Bregenz. With
Irish impetuosity he attacked the heathen morals and religious practices,
burning temples of the gods, breaking up the cauldrons which had been
sacred to Woden and throwing their idols into the lake. Three years of
this was all the people would stand, and he is next working and dying in
a monastery he founded in the Alps on the borders of Lombardy. We
shall shortly come upon yet another missionary approach to the British
Isles.

(3) The missions of the Roman Church have two distinct sources, but
since the work overlapped and the workers usually co-operated and their
results were all finally merged under the supremacy of the Roman author-
ity, it is hardly possible to keep distinct the operations from the two sources.
The larger number of workers and the general direction came from Rome
and from the Frankish territory under the direct influence of Rome.
Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, with the characteristic independence and in-
dividualism of these tribes, had considerable originality and initiated exten-
sive work on the continent, in which were engaged a large number of
missionaries, many of them quite notable. In sections of Gaul, Friesland
and Germany their work was the decisive factor in the acceptance of
Christianity, and formed bases- and impulse for the Christianizing of
Northern Europe. As indicated above, it is useless to try to distinguish
the work from these two sources. The Patron Saint of Gaul is Martin
of Tours, whose life runs through most of the fourth century. He was
aq untiring missionary, organized itinerating ascetic bands of workers, and
planted Christianity widely in western Gaul. Among many other workers
in this region were Honoratus of Lerins, and Victricus of Rouen. By 400,
Celtic Gaul, which was under political control of Rome, was "extensively
evangelized."

FRANCE AND SPAIN

The Burgundians, tiring of their pagan superstitions, sent a commission
into Christian Gaul to ascertain whether Christianity offered a worthy
God. This was the beginning of their evangelization. The Frankish tribe
which gave its name to the modern country and nation owes its Chris-
tianity to the Burgundian wife, Clotilde, of the gruff and vigorous chieftain
Clovis. She was a devoted and aggressive Christian. She was not able
to win her husband, but greatly influenced his mind. Then when in des-
perate straits in a battle with the Germans he appealed to Clotilde's God,
vowing that if he were delivered he would become a Christian. Accord-
ingly, on Christmas Day, in 496, he was baptized in Rheims by the mis-
sionary bishop Remigius, with great pomp and ceremony. He was greatly
moved by the preacher's account of the crucifixion of Jesus, and with
clinched fists declared: "If I had been there with my noble Franks, they
wouldn't have done it." He evidently had no very profound insight into
the principle of spiritual atonement. Nevertheless, his rugged and deter-
mined character took Christianity in as a definite part of his programme.

74 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Three thousand of his soldiers were at once baptized and his armies were
thereafter militant promoters of Christianity. To come under his author-
ity was to accept his church. By 536, with the generous aid of a body of
churchmen, and by means of political influence and military force, all his
growing territory was identified with the Church. By his conquest and
by his patronage of the Roman theologians and organizers, the Arianism
referred to earlier in connection with the Gothic Christian movement, was
overcome and substituted by Roman orthodoxy.

Spain, although it had had some genuinely spiritual evangelism, was
still largely heathen in the fourth century. In the fifth and sixth centuries
it was overrun by the Ostrogoths, who were Arian in faith. In 587 the
king accepted the Roman interpretation, and in the brief space of two
years formally identified his entire country with that church. Yet, "by
its side, in groups here and there, idolatry and Judaism had their partisans."
"Their death was decided upon," and was proceeded upon with a large
measure of success.

ROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN GREAT BRITAIN

Before his exaltation to the papacy, Gregory the First had become
greatly interested in the Angles, according to tradition having been fascir
nated by their fair hair and skin and blue eyes when he saw some captives
in Rome. He is said to have declared that they were well named, for
they were indeed like "angels." He is credited with purposing himself
to go as a missionary to Engl.r . In 596 he designated Augustine as his
representative to plant Christianity there. Only remnants of any previous
work were found in southeast England, and progress was slow at first.
Later it became much more rapid, and in fifty years the entire "Anglo-
Saxon heptarchy had abandoned idolatry." The work continued to grow.
It came into contact, as indicated above, with the Celtic Christianity.
Controversies arose and were the more intense because the leaders of the
newer movement were eager to incorporate all Christians under the central
authority of Rome. The Synod of Whitby, 664, marks the formal victory,
and by the end of that century most of England was in the Roman Cath-
olic Church, although the inclusion was not complete until the Norman
conquest.

Out of the Northumbrian centre came Wilfrid to Friesland (687) ;
Willebrord, " the Apostle of Holland," who led an apostolic band of twelve
(690) ; the brothers Ewald into the same region; Alcuin, the able and
influential teacher of Charlemagne; and, besides many others, Winfrid,
greatest of English missionaries before modern times. From 716 onward
he was at once a great missionary worker, general and statesman. Through-
out the Germanic regions he "converted, organized missions and converts,
and reorganized churches into the one Church of Rome." His ability and
worth were recognized, and he was honoured by the popes and supported
by the influence and power of Charles Mattel. With Utrecht as his epis-
copal see and base of operations, he conducted and supervised a wide range
of work. "Allemani, Hessians, Bavarians, Saxons and Franks of various
tribes heard the Gospel from him and turned to Christ in great numbers."

EXPANSION AND CONSOLIDATION 75

It is said that a hundred thousand were baptized under his immediate
direction. In addition to bringing such great numbers into the faith, he
was the most powerful agent in solidifying all this central European region
as a part of the Catholic Church. It was altogether appropriate that his
official cognomen was Boniface.

MISSIONARIES IN WESTERN EUROPE

Into this region there came also notable workers from the south.
Amandus from Aquitania, in the middle of the seventh century, sought
to bring the Frieslanders into the Church, at first by authority of a royal
commission from his king, Dagobert, but found preaching and the mon-
astery more effective agencies. Eligius (St. Eloy), a goldsmith of Limoges,
at the same period became a powerful missionary preacher and later a
deeply consecrated and intelligent bishop for the converts. The great
organizer in the Netherlands region, however, was Willebrord. With
twelve helpers, he won many converts and organized churches. Having
gained papal recognition and honours and the patronage of Pepin, he suc-
ceeded in organizing all Frankish Friesland within the Roman Church,
but failed in his efforts in the independent Frisia and in Denmark. His
labours covered a period of half a century, to 739.

The Lombards were already, formally at least, Arians when they took
possession of North Italy. After much conflict and political manoeuvres
lasting through almost a century, they were included in the Roman Church.
Rupert of Worms was a great missionary in Bavaria, with headquarters
from which later arose the Salzburg Cathedral. Here also Wolfram laboured
with sympathy and success alongside the Scottish workers.

Charlemagne perhaps ranks first among the royal patrons of missionary
expansion and of the authority of the Roman Church. It has been said
that the "method of his apostolate overthrew all barriers." From 776 to
804, as he was building his empire, he was also vigorously forcing the
German Saxons into submission and conversion, since they had resisted
the milder efforts of the Northumbrian missionaries. Charlemagne had
them baptized first and evangelized afterward, a service in which some
of the English workers took part. He pressed the limits of the Roman
Church far to the eastward in Europe.

SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES

The evangelization of the Scandinavians is a romantic chapter in mis-
sionary history, fascinating also because of the remarkable missionary
spirit which these peoples have manifested in all their subsequent his-
tory. When Harold of Denmark sent a plea to King Louis, in 822, for
political support, the monarch took advantage of the opportunity to send
Ebo as a missionary to the Danes. He failed to receive any encouragement.
His political backing was against him. He gave up in failure, but atten-
tion had turned strongly in this direction and the way had to be opened.
Ansgar became the great Apostle of the Scandinavians, a man of indomitable
spirit, able gifts and untiring resourcefulness. The present city of Ham-
burg was the base of operations. A crude stone effigy occupies a position

76 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

on one o the central balustrades on an ancient bridge over the Elbe; He
was three times driven out of Denmark, but finally succeeded in planting
Christianity there in 847, and his work was completed by Canute, who
employed English missionaries in the task. The Church became all-
inclusive in that land in 1060. It is to be noted here, by anticipation, that
Denmark became the earliest post-reformation promoter of Protestant
missions.

In Sweden the earliest Christianity seems to have arisen informally,
just as did the first extension beyond Palestine into Antioch. King Bjorn
sent to Germany for priests. At the moment, Ansgar was experiencing one
of his banishments from Denmark, and accepted the new opportunity.
After his visit, in 832, he sent Gautbert, Nithard and others, while he
renewed his own efforts in Denmark. The missionaries had sufficient
success to arouse a heathen reaction, which broke up the work. But in
841, Ansgar again took it up and enlisted others. Progress was slow until
English missionaries carried it through to entire success in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries. As for Norway, the Vikings who had learned their
Christianity in England carried it with them when they made conquest of
this land.

VII

PERIOD OF SPORADIC MISSIONS: FIVE HUNDRED

LEAN YEARS

IOOO TO ISOO

T JL TE come now to a period of lowered spiritual vitality within the
y y Church, which was preoccupied with many problems, concerns
and conflicts within her own territory. There was little capacity
for outreaching, and the occasion for it was not so obvious or so urgent
as in previous times. The reign of the Church had largely obscured the
rule of the Christ. Masses had been swept into the Church without any
immediate concern that they should experience regeneration or have
intelligent or voluntary acceptance of the doctrines and adherence to the
institution. The belief in baptismal regeneration of infants which bad
now become almost universal, and the reliance on mysterious sacramental
efficacy for sanctification and heavenly admission strongly militated against
regeneration and spiritual reality within the Church. The complete pro-
fessionalizing of a priestly ministry largely eliminated laymen from direct
evangelism and robbed them of the missionaiy spirit, since they could not
be trusted to teach and could not validly administer the saving symbols.
The reliance on organization and ceremonial grace, along with the grow-
ing concept of the representative relation of the Pope on earth to the
Christ in heaven, involved a practical ignoring of the Holy Spirit as the
divinely ordained Counterpart of- the Christ and the informing soul of
the Church. In the plan of Jesus the Holy Spirit is the perpetual inspirer,
inaugurator, director and power in the missionary enterprise. When He
is overlooked and has not free course in the followers of Christ, missions
are sure to lose their compelling conviction and energy. There were
numerous more or less organized movements of opposition to the central-
izing and formalizing tendencies within Christendom. Likewise there was
vigorous protest in many quarters against the moral corruptions and the
ttnspiritual methods which increasingly received the sanction of the re-
sponsible authorities under the exigencies of political and ecclesiastical
compromise. The extensive and marked differences between the eastern
and the western branches of Christianity culminated in a final and formal
breach in 1054, when Pope and Patriarch mutually excommunicated each
other and consigned each other to eternal damnation.

The Western Church had largely left behind not only the Greek cul-
ture from which it was alienated by the breach with the Eastern Church,
but had in the main forgotten the classical Roman culture, because of the
interplay of ideas and forces in the pagan invasions and the new direction
which was given to the composite social movement. Out of the confusion

77

78 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

society was being organized on a feudal basis, which inevitably resulted
in suppressing individuality, subordinating all except the limited few, and
cutting off physical facilities for travel and intercourse on the part of
ordinary men.

The vast territorial extent of Christianity and the very general igno-
rance of world geography made it possible for Christians to lose sight
of the non-Christian world and to feel, even if somewhat vaguely, that
the Christian task was complete so far as its world occupation was con-
cerned. The Mohammedan growth had encircled the Christian territories.
The relations between Christendom and the Mohammedan world fostered
anything else than a spirit of helpfulness and a disposition to give the
blessings of one to the other. Christian information about the heathen
world was largely cut off by this wall of Mohammedanism; and in order
to reach the heathen, missionaries would have to make their way through
Mohammedan territory.

The Church having definitely set itself to be a political power, having
possessed itself of a distinct political unit in Italy in which it was the
exclusive power, and having adopted a definite policy of exercising a con-
trolling influence over all political states in the interest of the salvation,
spiritual welfare and moral and ethical realization of mankind, found itself
continuously occupied with political questions. Wars were almost con-
tinuous between rival claimants to power among the " sons of the Church."
Peoples were being shifted from one political control to another. Roman
Catholic rulers were contending with Greek Catholic rulers for territory
along the border line between the two sections of Europe. In every section
there were questions and problems sufficient to engage all the ability of the
Church's statesmen and to divert their attention from the definitely spiritual
work to which the Church was called.

GREAT HOME MISSION TASKS

Those within the Church who were concerned primarily with spiritual
matters found an immediate and pressing challenge for their interest and
efforts right at hand. In the first place, there was the great mass of
people who, while within the Church, as yet had no living, personal ex-
perience of grace and no intelligent knowledge of spiritual matters.
There were still pagans in practically all parts of Europe who did not
even formally acknowledge Christianity, even though many of them may
have been baptized.

Then there were "heretical sects" whose "conformity" was at most
only external and perfunctory to avoid persecution and other uncomfort-
able consequences; and some who were often openly and defiantly non-
conformist. From the beginning of the eleventh century these sects
increased in number, and in numbers, and gave to the Church an ever
growing problem upon which it exerted tremendous energies in the effort
to overcome them. From the Church's standpoint these constituted an
objective of missionary endeavour. From another standpoint they are
to be regarded themselves as vital missionary agencies for the conversion
of souls, the development of spiritual religion, and the cultivation of

FIVE HUNDRED LEAN YEARS 79

righteous, moral and ethical attitudes and behaviour. The most notable
of these sects were the Albigenses who arose in southeastern France; the
Petrobrusians (and Henricians) in western Switzerland; the Waldenses
who began in southern France and spread into Italy, where they continue
as an important factor in the religious life in the present day; and the
scattered groups of what came to be recognized in the Reformation era
as a powerful movement of Anabaptists, and who constituted a considerable
influence within the period now before us.

Jews were numerous in various parts of Europe, especially in Spain,
where also the Mohammedan Moors constituted a great challenge to the
Church. Thus Spain afforded the largest home mission field for this
period. Here and elsewhere throughout Europe pagans who had not
yet been incorporated in the Church, Jews, Moors and the large un-
spiritual element formally incorporated in the Church, but lacking per-
sonal experience and voluntary adherence, constitute a great problem and
absorb energies and resources in the effort to carry forward the work of
Christianizing territory already dominated by the Church through its
Christian rulers and otherwise.

MONASTIC ORDERS IN MISSIONS

The Benedictine order, which had begun its work in 529, continues in
this period educational and cultural activities, but is surpassed in member-
ship, standing and efficiency by the two great monastic orders which arose
in this period.

Francis of Assissi is one of the great saints of Christendom. Turning
from a life of luxurious dissipations, he repudiated the world, with all
its allurements and lust, to a degree rarely equalled; and gave himself,
with the simplicity of a child, with entire devotion and with extraordi-
nary ability to the cultivation of ~ personal piety, to the propagation of
personal experience and loyalty to Jesus Christ, and to the inculcation
of genuine religion in the midst of a mass of formalism and corruption.
In 1210 he organized a brotherhood with most rigid rules of austere self-
denial and devotion. Popularly called after his name, the Franciscans
constituted in this period the most sincere and spiritual influence in the
Church and continue unto our own day a religious power within the
Roman organization. They were especially useful in vitalizing Chris-
tians and in converting the heathen in central southern Europe. We
must consider them again for the attitude and influence of Francis with
Mohammedans.

Only six years after Francis constituted his order, Dominicus formed
one, which is also known by the name of the founder. His primary
objective was the conversion of heretics and the prevention of schism
within the Church. He and his followers set out with the idea of using
reason and persuasion. They were devoted to learning, increasingly sup-
plied professors for the universities and generally cultivated an educated
leadership for the Church. In 1232 they were honoured by being made
the official ministers of the Inquisition, which had been set up in 1229
as a method of restraining those who might be inclined to independence,

So THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

and for inducing conformity to the rule and teaching of the Church. In
1235 the effectiveness of this method was heightened by increased author-
ity conferred by the Pope, and thus the Dominicans throughout our period
were the greatly honoured and highly efficient agency of regularity. In
1483 Torquemada received his appointment and distinguished himself as
the most ruthless and thoroughgoing of all those who sacrificed the goods,
freedom and lives of men, in the interest of their eternal salvation by
compelling them to accept the saving ministries of the Church, even if
they must die in the process. Of course the political power, with its
civil and military instruments, was used by the spiritual agents for the
execution of physical pains and penalties. It would be a serious mistake,
however, to overlook the fact that there were many spiritual workers who
devoted themselves to the gentler and more Christian means of leading
men into the paths of salvation and into the fold of the Church; such,
for example, as Fernando de Talafera, Bishop of Granada, at the end of
the fifteenth century. By these means the sects were in large measure
restrained and suppressed. The unity of the Church was promoted and
maintained by preventing those who might be inclined to go outside its
system, as also by inducing many who had gone to return to the bosom
of the sometimes stern mother. Multitudes of Jews were brought to
nominal acceptance of Christianity. Many suffered persecutions and dis-
abilities, while in Spain great numbers were imprisoned and killed. Such
as refused to yield were banished in 1492. The course with the Moors
and the outcome was similar to that with the Jews. There were those
who tried to win them by more or less evangelistic methods ; bribes, threats
and torture were brought into play; finally they were given the choice
between immediate baptism or expulsion, the majority accepting the bap-
tism. The work in Spain was complete by 1502.

FOUR FlEM>S 0? FOREIGN MISSIONS

The efforts to extend the territory of the Kingdom of the Gospel the
more strictly missionary activity properly fall into four divisions. These
are determined by the subjects of missionary endeavour, as also by the
different geographical sections of the world in which they are found.

NORTHERN

(i) Certain small countries in Northeastern Europe remained still out-
side the Church in the year 1000, which we have marked in a general
way as the termination of the period of the "Conversion of Europe":
Poland, Wendland, Prussia, Lithuania, Pomerania, Esthonia, Courland.
These peoples were partly Slavic and partly Germanic. Poland and (east)
Prussia of course came later to be of great importance in European his-
tory. At this time they are, however, relatively small regions occupied by
vigorous, independent pagan dans. These were all incorporated within
the Church in this period, as were also for the most part the Finns and
the Lapps, the last two by the application of the authority of Danes and
Swedes. The work was achieved mostly by force of arms and always by
the use of political influence and authority. Their conversion was more

. FIVE HUNDRED LEAN YEARS 81

submission to force and authority and the following of prudential con-
siderations than convinced and loyal adherence to the Christian faith and
institution. They were subdued rather than converted, which in part
explains why they so readily accepted Protestantism when the Lutheran
Reformation gave the instigation and the opportunity. They had never
really been wrought into the Church of Rome, and their present conversion
was chiefly a preparation for the freer acceptance of Christianity under
later conditions.

In Poland heroic romance played its part. It was his wife, Dambrowka,
who led the Duke Mieceslav to favour the Christian faith, toward the
close of the tenth century. Later the Roman Church gave a special
dispensation permitting the nun, Oda, to give herself to this ruler in
order further to promote the Christianizing of the country. Then, in
1034, the Prince, Cassimir, who had become a Benedictine monk in Ger-
many, was absolved from his vows so that he might accept the throne
of Poland and complete its Christianizing. Pomerania was incorporated
in Poland, nominally accepting Christianity, but retaining such violent
pagan independence as to make Polish bishops unwilling to attempt their
orderly induction into the Church. A Spanish monk, Bernard, under-
took the task, but the Pomeranians would not believe that a mendicant
preacher represented the God of the universe. A German bishop, Otho,
on two missionary tours carried all the pomp of Roman officialdom and
was far more impressive. He succeeded in harmonizing the great centres,
baptizing thousands of candidates. Barnes tells us that "the Island of
Ruegan, ... in the Baltic Sea, was the last stronghold of paganism in
that region." Here, after Denmark had annexed the island, one Absolom
of Roeskild invaded the chief heathen temple and had axe-bearers demolish
the huge idol, Svanovit, convincing the people of the superior power of
the Christian God and making them willing to submit to the new faith.
This was in 1168, completing, as Barnes points out, the nominal inclusion
of the Slavic peoples in the Christian Church.

It was just about the year 1000 that the first two missionaries adven-
tured among the East Prussians. Adelbert went from Bohemia and Bruno
went from Saxony. Both were martyred, and it was two hundred years
before others tried it, to meet the same fate. Finally Christianity began
to win a following among the Prussians in the beginning of the thir-
teenth century under the ministry of Christian, a monk from Pomerania.
The Dominicans now took up the work and associated with themselves
crusading German knights, whose methods were more effective, at least on
the surface. The Prussians were brought into the Church, while the
knights remained to claim and administer the feudal estates. Retaining
much of their former spirit and some of the older pagan customs, the
people were ready to follow the Protestant revolt against the Roman
Church, which had seemed to them more a political master than a minister
of salvation.

Lithuania was the last of the German peoples to be won; and their
case illustrates some of the processes and weaknesses of the work of con-
verting Europe. Hedwig, who was heiress to the throne of Poland, yielded

82 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

to the desire of Jagellon (Ladislas III.) and became his wife on condition
of his becoming a Christian, 1386. La Garde says: "Then passing
through Lithuania, he overthrew the pagan sanctuaries, destroyed the
idols, urged his subjects to become Christians, and promised woolen
clothing to those who took his advice. The apostolic mission of the
prince, and especially the woolen clothing, had an irresistibly persuasive
effect. The nobles were baptized one at a time; as for the lower classes
they were divided into groups, which were sprinkled with holy water.
Shortly after this comforting ceremony, Lithuania received a bishop."
No wonder La Garde adds : " Several historians state that half a century
later, the Lithuanians were at heart pagans, and sought to set up their
idols once more." Thus Europe is at last all "Christian" and in either
the Greek or the Roman Church; but this was completed just at the
moment when the standards of Reformation revolt are being raised;
and we enter upon a new period of church history and of Christian
missions.

WEST AFRICA AND ISLAND GROUPS

(2) The west coast of Africa and the groups of islands lying westward
in the Atlantic constitute a distinct field of limited effort and success in
the extension of Christianity in this period. The Canary Islands were
colonized and as a matter of course Christianized under the leadership
of the Baron Jean de Bethencourt, of Normandy, whose professed motive
was missionary. The missionaries, Franciscan monks, wrote the story
of this mission in The Canarian, a book of the conquest and conversion
of the Canarians. They represent that they are supporting their knightly
patron, who was emulating "the great adventures, bold deeds, and fair
exploits of those who undertook voyages to conquer the heathen in the
hope of converting them to the Christian faith." The work succeeded
and the Baron made a personal visit to the Pope in the interest of his
mission and secured the appointment of Albert de las Casas as "Bishop
of all the Canary Islands." Albert "demeaned himself so well, so gra-
ciously and in such a pleasant manner, that he found favour with all the
people, and was the cause of many great blessings to the whole country.
He preached very often, now in one island and then in another." This was
early in the fifteenth century.

We are now in the beginnings of Portuguese and Spanish adventure
which are to develop into the most romantic of all eras of discovery, ex-
ploration and colonization. Henry, a prince of the blood in Portugal,
repudiated all purely secular life and service, to devote himself, with all
his resources, to the study of geography and exploration. He built an
observatory overlooking the ocean and for forty years promoted explora-
tion. Under his patronage the Azores were colonized, the Madeira,
Canary, and Cape Verde Islands were discovered, and the African coast
was touched here and there for more than a thousand miles beyond the
farthest point previously known in Europe. Among the reasons which
the Prince himself assigned for his course his chronicler, Azurara, tells
us "the fifth reason was the great desire to make increase in the faith

FIVE HUNDRED LEAN YEARS 83

of our Lord Jesus Christ and to bring to Him all the souls that should
be saved . . . whom the said Lord Infant by His travail and spending
would fain bring into the true path." The beginnings of Henry were
followed up throughout the fifteenth century and onwards. Missionary
priests were located in various places. John II. sent an expedition to the
Gold Coast, immediately building a fort and a church, in 1482, and in
1484 an expedition under Diego Cam entered the Congo. King John took
the keenest interest in this work, receiving with joy natives who were
taken to Portugal, especially one of the chiefs who came as an "ambas-
sador." This man, Cazuta by name, was baptized along with his suite,
under the sponsorship of the king and queen, and on his return was
accompanied by a considerable group of missionaries. Thus at various
points on the African coast missionaries were planted. They came in
contact with Mohammedanism and with the gross paganism. Their
methods were not the wisest, and the type of Christianity was un-
satisfactory in form and in moral influence. These explorations led to
inaugurating African slavery for the West and in other respects ex-
ploiting the natives and introduced new debasing influences. Here was,
however, a Christian beginning which left some traces behind for the later
centuries.

MOHAMMEDANS

(3) The Mohammedan peoples in western Asia, north Africa, and
southeastern Europe constituted a most inviting field of missionary en-
deavour, had European Christians been in any attitude of soul to see it
and if the internal conditions and the resources had left them free to
accept it. But when the Mohammedan political powers were constantly
pressing upon the Europeans with force and threatening to flow over into
Europe with destructive invasion, perhaps we should not wonder that the
at best only half Christian Europe failed to react in vigorous missionary
effort. Following the Mongol invasions, the Turks poured in their Golden
Horde into western Asia and southeastern Europe for two centuries from
1237, taking the political leadership of the Mohammedan world, with Con-
stantinople as the base of their operations, from which they extended their
name to a vast territory and built up an empire. For a time they domi-
nated Russia and permanently affected its Christianity. They destroyed
or reduced the older political centres of Mohammedanism, but accepted
the Mohammedan faith and became its promoters. While the two periods
of Mongol devastation ended with the death of Tamerlane, 1405, the
Ottoman Turks had destroyed all Christian government remaining in
western Asia, from 1300 onward, establishing their capital at Adrianople,
in I 335- Upon the death of Tamerlane, the Turks became aggressive and
captured Constantinople, and ruled there from 1453. Thus the Byzantine
Empire was permanently destroyed. The Turks spread over all south-
western Asia, Egypt and north Africa, and pressed into the Balkan regions
to besiege Vienna. They left a memorial in an independent Turkish island,
the minarets of whose mosque lift themselves in western Roumania (east-
ern Hungary before the late war) unto this day.

84 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The most vigorous reaction of Christian Europe to the Mohammedan
world was the Crusades. Through more than two centuries these move-
ments continued as a Christian effort to recover lands sentimentally sacred
as having been the earliest homelands of ,the Christian faith. While they
were mainly ineffective so far as extending Christian territory is con-
cerned, and wholly unworthy so far as missionary motive is involved,
they did serve to check Mohammedan expansion, and to win some con-
verts, as well as to establish certain Christian rights within the Turkish
Empire which otherwise might have been permanently abolished. Their
chief value lies in their giving an outlet to that vital spirit which inheres
in any living religion, and which was stimulated even by the mistaken
enthusiasm which swept millions of people into the effort to recover the
territory and restore the prestige of Christianity. Another benefit of
primary importance was the infusing into the cultural life of Europe of the
classical influences of Greek culture, including the Greek Bible, and the
scientific spirit of the Arabic culture. These two factors promoted a new
advance in the life of Europe, one aspect of which was a purified Chris-
tianity which would enter upon a new era of world expansion.

Francis of Assissi, with his keen spiritual insight, unselfish devotion
and universal human sympathy, saw that the attitude of Christendom was
fundamentally wrong. He vigorously sought to change that attitude and
to induce the Christian authorities to undertake the conversion of the
Moslems. For years he laboured in this effort. He was interested also
in foreign missions on a wider scale. A sub-division of his order embraced
those who especially shared this conviction and desire. With all his piety
and spiritual power he failed to procure the sanction Of Rome for his
enterprise. Nevertheless, in a limited way he saw work undertaken in
Tuscany, Morocco, Spain, Syria, in addition to the spiritual evangelism
which his order carried on within the Church in Germany, Hungary and
France. He himself spent a year and a half, 1218-19, on missions in
Egypt, Palestine and Syria. His bold gentleness and gracious daring
secured for him the privilege of preaching to the Sultan at Damietta and
of freely proclaiming his Gospel among the soldiers. His work amounted
to little more than a genuinely Christian gesture abroad, but was a powerful
testimony within the "Church to the true Christian attitude toward non-
Christian peoples.

Another apostle of the missionary idea of Christ was Raymond Ijull,
1234-1315. A courtier to the King of Spain and then Senechal of the
island of Majorca, where he inherited rich estates, he was giving himself
up to sensuous living and literary work. While he was in the midst of
writing a sensual love poem, the crucified Christ was thrust into his mind
with the vividness of a vision. When he again tried to finish his poem
the vision was repeated in similar fashion. He became a passionate devotee
of Christ and was possessed with Francis' idea of the duty of evangelizing
the Mohammedans. For forty-five years he devoted himself to the propa-
gation of this idea and to putting it into effect. Extensively he agitated
to this end, appealing to popes, civil rulers, councils, congregations and
private individuals. He was in danger of making himself a nuisance to

FIVE HUNDRED LEAN YEARS 85

unwilling listeners, and was sometimes repulsed with the taunt that he
might go to the Mohammedans himself. He prepared a form of literary
propaganda for use in conduct of missions. In his Ars Magna he provided
a handbook of questions and answers by means of which he thought that
a missionary must certainly convince any Mohammedan of the superior
truth and value of the Christian faith. Also he procured the introduction
of the study of Oriental Languages, with professorships in the principal
universities of the day, including Paris, Salamanca, Oxford. His own
idea was that in this way missionaries would be trained for the work
which he was urging in the East. Ultimately his wish is being slowly
carried out in this twentieth century. He aroused little positive response
so far as his main purpose was concerned, although he did greatly con-
tribute to the cultural awakening of Europe. He proved his faith by his
works. After travelling through southern Europe and into England, he
devoted himself to personal labours in Egypt, Palestine and as far as
Armenia. He made three missionary journeys into North Africa Tunis
and Bugia where he finally had the experience of Stephen and "fell
asleep" under a shower of stones, while praying that God would forgive
in Christ those who knew not what they did.

CENTRAL; AND EASTERN ASIA

(4) The widest field, with the most adventurous missionary work in
this period, is among the pagan populations of Asia, chiefly in the re-
markable empire of the Great Khans, who arose, flourished and fell within
this period. Heroic missionaries travelled, mainly on foot, through all
Central Asia into India, and as far as western China. They were mostly
Franciscans and Dominicans; but others joined in the work.

First to undertake the evangelization of these Tatars were the Nestorians.
A king of the Kerait tribe sent an invitation to the Archbishop at Merv,
east of the Caspian Sea, just after the year 1000. This invitation stirred
enthusiasm among the Nestorians as far as Damascus and induced a new
Christian movement of evangelization, continuing for some four hundred
years. We are to remember also that this is the period when Mongol
migrations rolled westward even into Hungary and Poland, thus giving
rise to a number of official, semi-political missions which enlisted the
labours of able and notable men.

We know about the Nestorian work chiefly through the reports of the
missionaries from Europe, whose references to them are sufficiently
numerous and detailed to make it clear that they were active and influen-
tial. Some of the Catholic missionaries sought earnestly to persuade the
Nestorians to come into their church, and some expressed great impa-
tience and resentment that the Nestorians were hindering the Kingdom
of God and the Christianizing of the millions of the Chinese by their
obstinate sectarianism. In the middle of the thirteenth century (1246), the
King of Armenia sent his brother, Sempad, on an embassy of friendship
to the Khan. Sempad reported a council of "Tartar Barons and sol-
diers," who had come together from the various sections of the realm so
widely scattered that it had been five years since the death of the previous

86 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Khan before this council could choose and exalt his successor. From the
members of this council he claims to have learned of Christians in all
parts of the great empire; that the grandfather of the present Khan had
"granted them liberty of worship, and issued orders to prohibit their
having any just cause of complaint by word or deed;" and that the
"Saracens" were in their turn receiving "in double measure" the per-
secuting treatment which they had formerly inflicted on Christians. One
of the most notable Catholic missionaries reported that the Nestorians,
"who profess to bear the Christian name, but who deviate sadly from the
Christian religion, have grown so powerful in those parts that they will
not allow a Christian of another ritual to have ever so small a chapel or
to publish any doctrine different from their own;" although he proceeds to
give an account of the prosperity of his own work which seems to conflict
with his charge of repressive conduct on the part of the Nestorians. The
Nestorians seem clearly to have established themselves, with extensive suc-
cess, as far as Peking and thence southward, in much of China.

The Franciscans particularly, and the Dominicans also, had strong men
who were quick to take advantage of the opening in Asia. The request of
the Kerait Khan for missionaries occasioned a report, which spread
throughout Europe and persisted, about a certain " Prester John," an unique
priest-king who held sway over a large part of the continent. This myth
is said to have " attached more or less to all the Tartar sovereigns." The
Pope, in 1245, sent John, of Piano Carpini, a Franciscan of the first fol-
lowing, as a missionary to the Khans. He reached the headquarters of
the great Khan, Karakorum, within less than a thousand miles of Peking.
He was a man between sixty and seventy years of age, but discharged his
mission with facility and success. He arrived in time to witness the
selection of Kuyuk for his Khanate. He had an audience with him and
returned with a highly favourable report of the conditions and prospects,
as also with information concerning China, Kathay as it was then called
in Europe.

The King of France sent William Rubruque and two other Franciscans
as missionaries. Arrived at Karakorum, they found that Mangou had
succeeded Kuyuk as Khan. He held a public conference of religions, in-
viting representatives of Buddhism, Mohammedanism and Christianity to
present their cause, but with the warning that death would follow for any
who quarrelled. The Roman missionary effected an agreement with the
Nestorians for co-operation between the two Christian groups. The
[Nestorians opposed the Mohammedans, since they knew them better, while
the Catholics undertook to confute the Buddhists. The Mohammedans
emphasized their agreements with the Christians, even joining with them
in chanting. The Emperor concluded the conference with the statement
that "as God has given the hand several fingers, so He has prepared for
men various ways by which they may go to heaven." He declared that
although God has "given the Gospel to the Christians, . . . they do not
obey it," while he claimed that the Mongols "do what their soothsayers
command, and therefore they have peace."

Kublai Khan, in the middle of the thirteenth century, came to the head

FIVE HUNDRED LEAN YEARS 87

of the great empire founded by the mighty Genghis, extended and organ-
ized it until he ruled the widest continuous extent of territory ever under
the lordship of one man. He was cosmopolitan and liberal in his attitude
toward all religions. Unless there was some special provocation it was
the policy of all these Khans to allow entire freedom to any and all religious
sects, often patronizing them freely. It was in his reign that the Polos
were on their famous tour which uncovered China before the imagination
of Europe. Marco Polo. won such favour for himself that he was not
only the friend of rulers, receiving honours and favours, but left such a
name with the Buddhist monks that one may find his effigy among the twice
nine Boddhisatwas who line the approach to the triple images of the Buddha
which surmount the high altar in many a Buddhist temple today. Kublai
commissioned Marco's father and uncle, Nicolo and Maffeo, to represent
him in a request of the Pope "to send one hundred learned men ... to
instruct the people in western knowledge and in the Christian religion."
When they arrived, it was in 1270, the period of the " Babylonian captiv-
ity," when rival claimants were contending for the Apostolic See and the
cardinals could not agree. Ecclesiastical politics made impossible the
acceptance of a supreme opportunity of the Church for missionary work.
It was some years before any response could be given, by Gregory X., and
then it was only two (Dominicans), instead of the hundred asked for, and
they turned back before reaching their destination. Papal Europe was
just then too occupied with politics and factions, and besides was more
eager for another great crusade in the effort to capture the Holy Sepul-
chre than to follow on after the risen Christ, Who was leading the way into
the heart of the greatest empire the world knew at that time.

At the end of the thirteenth century, one of the greatest of missionary
spirits, the Franciscan John of Monte Corvino, was sent with papal com-
mission and, although already in middle life, spent more than thirty-five
years in heroic service. He went by way of Persia, leaving there in 1291,
and spent thirteen months in India, where he " baptized, in different places
about one hundred persons," and buried in the church of the St. Thomas
Christians his companion missionary, a Dominican, Nicholas. By the time
he had arrived, the capital of the Khan had been established in Cambalec,
the name of what was later Peking, recently renamed Peiping by the
Republic. It was twelve years before he had any communication from
his Pope, any member of his order or any one else in Europe. He suc-
ceeded in baptizing, as he estimated, "some six thousand persons," and
says that but for reports which were spread abroad by a certain Lombard
about the papal conditions and other ecclesiastical matters, which the good
missionary regarded as wicked slanders, he "should have baptized more
than thirty thousand." He had bought up one hundred and fifty boys
from their pagan parents, "of ages varying from seven to eleven, who
had never learned any religion." These he was training as religious work-
ers, teaching them Greek and Latin, writing out for them and having them
copy Psalters, Hymnaries and Breviaries. He pleads most earnestly for
missionaries and for equipment for his work.

In 1317 seven Franciscans were sent by the Pope with a commission as

88 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

archbishop for John, while they were themselves each to serve as a mis-
sionary bishop. Three of these died en route and a fourth returned to
Europe. One of these bishops, Andrew of Perugia, established himself
in Zayton, a thousand miles south of Cambalec, where he found already
Persian (Nestorian) influence and a wealthy Armenian lady who built
for him a cathedral, maintaining it "with a competent endowment" which
was passed on by her will to Andrew's successor. Andrew had secured
an allowance from the Emperor for his own maintenance, and his work
flourished. He found more of religious liberty than he liked, provided of
course his could have been the favoured faith. He writes: "'Tis a fact,
that in this vast empire there are people of every nation tinder heaven
and of every sect, and all and sundry are allowed to live freely according
to their creed. For they hold this opinion, or rather this erroneous view,
that everyone can find salvation in his own religion." He is able to report
that "many of the idolaters are baptized," but regrets that there are no
converts from Jews and Saracens. He regretfully admits that "many of
the baptized walk not right in the path of Christianity."

A picturesque Franciscan, Odoric of Pordenone, travelled as a free
lance missionary through India, Burma, southwest China to Zayton, where
he deposited the bones of missionary martyrs who had died on their way
to China and which he had brought with great pains as relics. Continuing
his journey, he crossed northern China, visiting his missionary brethren.
In Cambalec he found his Minor Friars ministering in the Emperor's
court, while he is able to tell of " our own converts to the faith, of whom
there be some who are great Barons at that court." He next invaded
Tibet, finding Christian missionaries in the capital there. After sixteen
years, he returned home in 1330. He was hindered by illness from return-
ing to Asia with a new group of missionaries. The accounts represent
him as claiming to have baptized twenty thousand converts, although Barnes
thinks this may be an error of his amanuensis or of a copyist.

MISSIONS IN TH FIVE KHANATES

The empire of the Khans was subdivided into five subordinate Khanates.
In all of these missions were carried on during this period. After Kublai,
the divisions began to fall apart and confusion progressively arose. In
Persia, the royal favour wavered between Christianity and Mohammedan-
ism. In 1305 the capital was established at Sultania, which grew into a
magnificent city. The Dominican missionaries speedily established here
twenty-five churches. In 1318 an archbishopric was set up with six mis-
sionary bishops to carry on the work. Franciscans also laboured in Persia
with the claim that they had ten thousand converts.

The Great Khan sent an embassy to the Pope from Peking, in 1338. In
return, the Pope sent John of Marignolli at the head of a band of Fran-
ciscans. After visiting the mission in Chagatai, the chief town of the
"Middle Empire," they arrived and were royally received. After four
years he returned with a request that the Pope would appoint a cardinal
for China, but again the Church was too preoccupied with home affairs
and problems to give proper attention to its missions.

FIVE HUNDRED LEAN YEARS 89

In 1368 the Tatar Dynasty was .overthrown in China, the empire was
already broken in pieces, there came an anti-foreign reaction. All for-
eigners were driven out of China and Christianity almost disappeared in
the two centuries which intervened before a new mission came in from
another source. The warfares and conflicts of the petty successors to the
great emperors practically closed all Asia to the outside world, and the
period of great promise left behind it little that was permanent for Chris-
tianity in Asia.

INDIA

India's place in the missionary efforts of this period is secondary and
incidental to the extensive campaigns in the Empire Of the Khans, an
empire which came to include all India, at least under remote recognition
and rule.

To Marco Polo's story of his experiences and observations from 1270
to 1295, and to the Sir John Mandeville's (the name is, of course, fictitious)
highly coloured and unconfessed handling of the Padre Odoric's narratives
we owe most of the information of India in this period, as well as much
of what we may learn of China, in which they were more interested. For
India was at that time in the way of the best route to Cathay.

The Franciscan John of Monte Corvino, on his way to China to become
its first really mighty Roman Catholic apostle and Archbishop', says that on
his way he " spent thirteen months in that province where the church of the
holy Apostle Thomas is ; at different places in that province I baptized some
hundred persons; my companion was Brother Nicolo de Pistorio of the
Preaching Friars." This was in 1292-3.

Nearly twenty years later Menentillus, another Friar, found Christians
and Jews in India, "but they are few and of no standing. Christians and
all who have Christian names are often persecuted." Polo had found
"great multitudes of Christians and Saracens" visiting the shrines of
Thomas. Polo's observations were the more extensive, and the Moham-
medan persecutions of Christians were probably beginning in the Malabar
region only after this date. At all events, when, in 1319, Dominicans and
Franciscans undertook more formally to labour in India, after preaching
from Tabriz to Ormuz, they met violent antagonism at the. hands of the
" Saracens," with whom they disputed over the claims of the two religions
as to Jesus and Mohammed. Four Franciscans were shortly slain. Their
Dominican leader, \fordanus, remained two years. He wrote of India in a
book, Wonders of the East. He records: "There, in the India I speak
of, I baptized and brought into the faith about three hundred souls, of
whom many were idolaters and Saracens," the rest being, of course, Nes-
torians, whose baptism and Christian standing he would not recognize. He
found that " among the idolaters a man may with safety expound the Word
of the Lord," and that converts among them were "not hindered from
being baptized." Those who were " converted by the Preaching Minor
Friars," he solemnly declares to be "ten times better" than "our folks
here " in Europe. He is convinced that " if there be two hundred or three
hundred good friars who would faithfully and fervently preach the Catholic

90 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

faith, there is not a year which would not see more than ten thousand,
or thereabouts, converted to the Christian faith." He laments the many
souls that are perishing "for lack of preachers of the Word of the Lord."
He knew many forms of persecution. He tells of nine " there in my time
cruelly slain for the Catholic faith," and exclaims : " Woe is me that I was
not with them there ! "

About this same time, Odoric of Pardenone, the Franciscan traveller
whose destination was China, touched at various points in India, and his
records give some general information concerning Christians, chiefly the
Syro-Nestorians, in various sections. John of Marignolli, Papal Nuncio to
China, tells some remarkable stories of his observations and experiences in
India en route home, during two years, 1348-50. His narrative indicates
an otherwise unknown prosperity and influence of Christianity in the
Malabar regions. He dramatically dedicated a cross-crowned marble pillar
on the promontory of Cape Comorin "in the presence of multitudes of
spectators;" visited Christians in the Maldive Islands, and was received
with great honours by a princess whom he styles the "far-famed Queen
of Sheba." In Ceylon, he suffered four months' imprisonment, and could
learn nothing of the Christian Church there. There are no further efforts
in India until the eighteenth century.

Thus, for a second time, a prosperous Christian movement with prom-
ising opportunity to become the true light of Asia, comes to a halt and fails
for lack of spiritual insight, proper method and genuinely prophetic function.
A widespread Christianity leaves behind chiefly diffused influences and
traditions that will not facilitate the welcome for future bearers of the
good news of the Christ.

vm

PERIOD OB INNER REVOLUTION AND OUTWARD

EXPLORATION

1500-1792

CONDITIONS in Europe in the fifteenth century were ripe for the
inauguration of a new era. Old things must pass away. Some new
advance must deliver from the intellectual, spiritual and political stag-
nation and decay. Westward the course of human ambition and progress
will follow the lead of divine providence. We have seen the completion
of the effort to incorporate all parts of Europe in the Roman Catholic
Church. Within that Church there have arisen movements earnestly
seeking to vitalize its machinery, to purify its practices and reform its
living, to spiritualize and moralize its conception of religion and its in-
fluence on social life. Other movements have sought freedom of religious
expression outside the all-comprehensive Church. These have been dis-
couraged, repressed, persecuted, sometimes destroyed. Still, some have
maintained a separate existence. In England, Wycliffe (1320-84), Pro-
fessor in Oxford, began by opposing the political claims of the papacy
and went on to reject the whole religious system of the Roman Church.
He translated the entire Bible into English, thus beginning the method
which not only would issue in a new movement within Christendom, but
would introduce a new era in missionary activity. His organization of
Lollards constituted a missionary movement for the circulation of the
Scriptures and the popular preaching of evangelical doctrines. The com-
bined power of Church and State in England, supported and urged onward
from Rome, was not sufficient to suppress the movement. When his bones
were burned, in 1429, and the ashes scattered upon the waters of the
Severn, it was indeed a symbolic prophecy that a vital Christianity would
be swept over the seas to all the shores of earth. Professors in the Uni-
versity of Prague learned from some of their students of Wycliffe's work.
John Hus, the Rector of the University, began a similar movement in
Bohemia. Although he was burned at the stake by the order of the
Council of Constance, the flames of his martyrdom threw an awakening
light into the souls of men. The whole country was on the verge of
revolt against the Church. Vigorous measures and shrewd diplomacy,
dividing the reform movement, weakened it, and it was "strangled in
blood," but remnants of the effort remained, and will appear in our story
three hundred years later.

We have seen how the promising beginning in Asia was terminated by
the breaking up of the empire of the Great Khans. It would be easy to
point out mistakes and weaknesses in the methods of Christian missions

91

92 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

which would largely explain the failure of their results to perpetuate
themselves as a wiser and more genuinely Christian work might have
done, even through the confused conditions into which the great continent
fell. Their dependence upon political favour and the close relationships
between Church and State, together with the failure to give to the new
Christians the Bible in their own tongue, and the general lack of a Chris-
tian culture left the converts, however numerous they might be, inexperi-
enced babes in the face of a world of paganism and confusion. It is to be
noted also that, except for the Nestorians, who were regarded as heretical,
the Greek Orthodox Church was taking no part in missions in Asia. That
Church had already lost its projectile power. The Roman Catholic in-
vasion of Asia was too subject to European politics and to Turkish Mo-
hammedan interference to maintain itself in adverse circumstances. The
effort to evangelize the Mohammedan peoples within the Turkish domains
never enlisted the official support of the Church nor awakened popular
enthusiasm. It was only a series of sporadic efforts on the part of a few
great-souled Christian men. Of the four geographical spheres of activity
which we saw challenging the Church in the five centuries following 1000
it was the least significant as it appeared at the time which was to expand
into supreme importance in the next period. A few island groups and a
few points only lightly touched on the African coast lured on to uncovered
continents and unnumbered islands in previously unimagined seas, all occu-
pied by primitive peoples waiting for the Law of the Lord.

A NSW AWAKENING 0# THE WORIJJ

No one outstanding religious fact, nor any specific ecclesiastical incident,
marks here the transition from one missionary period to another, yet we
are moving from the inconsistent and largely futile mediseval missions to
a series of new undertakings which will constitute a preparation for the
first truly universal missionary era after apostolic days. Gradually we
find ourselves in a changed spiritual world, and Christianity awakening
to a new sense of its meaning and mission for humanity. The Lutheran
Reformation was one of the most significant crises in the history of organ-
ized Christianity. Yet it had no immediate significance for Christian mis-
sions and produced no direct efforts to evangelize the heathen. It is to
exploration, discovery and colonization that we must turn for the tangible
explanation of a new movement in Christian expansion, and as the channel
for the outgoing life of a missionary religion. The beginnings of adven-
ture into unknown areas of the earth's surface, of which Prince Henry
was the great exponent and prophet, produced an era of romance, heroism,
enlightenment and enlargement, .along with much of tragedy and shame.
This new movement in territorial expansion and adventure lifted the .mind
of Europe out of the darkness of the Middle Ages and opened up before
the spirit of man a horizon of possibility and a challenge to adventurous
progress which reacted on the whole life of Europe and set in motion
streams of quickening life throughout the world. It was truly the occasion
of a rebirth of the human race, the full significance of which we are only
just now beginning to understand.

INS1ER REVOLUTION AND OUTWARD EXPLORATION 93

If any one event is to be fixed on here for a transition point from one
period of missions to another, it is the discovery of America by Columbus
in 1492. Columbus is not usually thought of as a Christian missionary.
Yet it was this great feat of his that was at the same time an epochal
achievement of human adventure and an act of God which would direct
the attention and concentrate the energies of Christendom upon a world of
opportunity and lead on to a campaign such as had not been in the mind
of any one to conceive, and which would stir the heart of the Christian
world for expansion and for proclaiming its Gospel of salvation as it had
not been stirred for a thousand years.

The daring discoverer took especial interest and pride in his Christian
name^- Christopher. He loved to think that he was hi a genuine sense a
''Christ-bearer" to the pagans into whose lands he came. As he stepped
from the ship, he planted the Spanish flag and the cross of Christ together
on the shore and claimed all the territory which he might be discovering
for his European sovereigns and for his Saviour and his Church. His
royal patrons shared his own belief that Christianizing the heathen was
at least one of the chief motives in this undertaking. It is well known that
he believed that he was sailing for "the countries of India and of a Prince
called Great Can." He was acquainted with the fact that the Khans had
sent requests for "instructors who might teach 'them* our holy faith,
and the holy Father (Pope) had never granted ' the request/ whereby great
numbers of people were lost, being in idolatry and doctrines of perdition."
In his official report, from which these quotations are taken, he spoke also
of certain features of the people in the newly discovered territory, which
he accounted a "circumstance very propitious for the realization of what
I conceive to be the principal wish of our most serene King, namely, the
conversion of these people to the holy faith of Christ." Furthermore, in
his will he provided that his son and his son's successor in the inheritance
should " spare no pains in having and maintaining in the Island of Espanola
four good professors of Theology to the end and aim of their studying and
labouring to convert to our holy faith the inhabitants of the Indies; and In
proportion as, by God's will, the revenue of the estate shall increase, in the
same degree shall the number of teachers and devout persons increase,
who are to strive to make Christians of the natives; in attaining which no
expense should be thought of." He claims to have given "six or seven
years of great anxiety " in the effort to impress " how great service might
be done to our Lord by this undertaking, in promulgating His sacred
name and our holy faith among so many natives." Prescott, historian of
the Conquest of Mexico, declares that " there was nothing which the Span-
ish government had more earnestly at heart than the conversion of the
Indians. It forms the constant burden of their instructions, and gave to
the military expeditions in this western hemisphere somewhat the air of
a crusade." Alas that the motives of adventure and greed so obscured the
religious ideal and pressed it into the background that the whole move-
ment took on the form of ruthless exploitation of the new lands and heart-
less slaughter and oppression of the newly discovered peoples. It is hardly
possible now for us to think of Cortez, Pizarro, Magellan, Valasquez, and

94 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

that host of adventurers and buccaneers, of whom they are the best repre-
sentatives, as missionaries of the Cross of the saving Christ. Yet in
association with them were many monks and priests, some of whom gave
themselves sacrificially to the effort to save the natives from future loss
and ruin, and from the inhumanities imposed by the explorers, colonists
and gold seekers. Whether by military force and compulsion and domi-
nation, or by the use of evangelistic and ecclesiastical agencies and methods
the Roman Catholic Church did incorporate within itself all the American
territory acquired by the Latin peoples.

FOUR UNES OP HUMAN ADVANCE IN EUROPE

Within Europe this period was marked with a forward rush along four
separate and largely concurrent lines. There was a cultural renaissance,
a religious reformation, an economic transition and a political revolution.
In each direction humanity made a great surge forward. It is only natural
that each phase of this movement gradually slowed down and suffered
arrest so that in no direction was it pushed through to a logical outcome.
The cultural renaissance introduced into European life the influences of
classical literature and philosophy, widened the scope of learning, greatly
increased the number of literate, although there was at that time no dream
of democratizing education, or universalizing knowledge. Feudalism began
to be broken up, serfdom was gradually abandoned and there were the
beginnings of the development of the cities with the new types of industrial
and economic life. Absolute monarchies were yielding to aristocratic rule
with progressive increase in the numbers of those who exercised influence,
although the constitution limiting the monarchy is delayed until the middle
of our new period. While there are distinct "foregleams of the Reforma-
tion," the religious new era is definitely dated at the nailing of the ninety-
five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, in 1517.

The new movement in religion was part and parcel of the new life in all
Europe. It precipitated a long period of ecclesiastical conflicts. Romanism
naturally undertook to suppress the Protestant movement and, failing that,
to antagonize, embarrass and weaken it to the utmost of its ability; and
it threw into this effort remarkable leadership, amazing strategy and
extraordinary resources. Protestantism not only defended itself and strug-
gled for its life and freedom, but set before itself, as a great undertaking
with a divine calling, the winning of converts from the Roman Church.
Within the older church there were many manifestations of the new life,
vigorous efforts at reform and no little division and contention. Prot-^
estantism was not one movement, but a number of different movements.
There were different interpretations; and the very ability of the greater
leaders made it the more difficult for them to unite or to compromise.
Protestantism was therefore broken up into a series of inharmonious move-
ments, antagonizing each other at many points and coming into doctrinal
and territorial competition and even conflict.

PROTESTANTISM NOT MISSIONARY

Such a vital renaissance in human society was bound to have its ration-

INNER REVOLUTION AND OUTWARD EXPLORATION 95

alistic aspects. The restraints of tradition and convention lost their hold
on many. There were extensive movements of scepticism, humanism,-
illuminism, and what not. The political character and affiliation of the
churches, Roman and Protestant, gave to them physical and social forces
with which to prevent widespread desertion from the churches, but could
not control the soul reaction against and away from religion. All this
tended to restrain any emergent enthusiasm for the projection of Chris-
tianity beyond its present borders, while also it occupied the best intellects
within the churches in apologetic and polemic labours.

If we cannot excuse, we can at least understand the fact that Protestant- -
ism took no interest in missionary work beyond the confines of Europe
for a hundred and fifty years. It is less easy to understand, and less easy
to justify, the active opposition to missions, when they came to be urged,
on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities and systems, so that it was
three centuries after Luther before we find any Protestant church formally
accepting the responsibility for the evangelization of the heathen world. -
The bitter conflict with the Catholic Church; the struggle for existence,
the complications with political rulers and with the affairs of the secular
states, whose patronage seemed to most Christians in those days to be
necessary to the continued existence of the new movement; the conflicts
within Protestantism, and the preoccupation with defining their new faith,
the construction of new creeds and liturgies, the definition and setting up
of the ecclesiastical systems; the spirit of indifference and antagonism
which had been engendered by the long period of the Mohammedan threat
against Europe all these served to prevent the world outside making its
appeal to Protestant Christianity. Besides, there was the fact that the
Scriptures had long played little part in the life of the Roman Church.
The Protestants " searched the Scriptures " for justification of their course
of revolt, and for guidance and confirmation in the building of their new
forms of creed and structure. The universalism of the Christian Gospel
and the purpose of divine revelation as yet made no impression upon them,
and was quite overlooked. Christianity was interpreted as a function of
the state, and it was difficult to think of it as extending beyond the limits
of political and of governmental control. This idea of the dependence of
the spiritual body upon the political protection and direction became a
positive doctrine to be applied against the agitators in favour of missionary
undertakings as this period advanced. Again, we are in a period of almost
continual wars dynastic wars, wars of conquest, religious wars and wars
of human depravity. A military spirit is always unfavourable to any
missionary movements, save those which are bound up with some form of
secular aggression. Finally, the Protestants largely held to doctrines of>
divine election and of millennialism, which combine in the thinking of that
day to make missionary effort useless from the human view-point and an
impertinence in the face of the divine purpose.

It was the countries which adhered to the Catholic Church which
provided the earliest discoverers and explorers, which had the navies and
the material resources. They preceded the Protestant countries in coloniza-
tion and annexation of new territory by more than a century. This in

96 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

large measure accounts for the fact that the Catholic Church was drawn
into the new enterprise of missionary expansion. Besides, Catholics looked -.
to the newly discovered lands as opportunity to compensate the heavy
losses which they sustained when northern Europe went over almost
solidly into Protestantism. The Catholic Church was able to claim the
succession to extensive and dramatic missionary activities in Asia in the
preceding period, as also to feel that going forth to convert the heathen
world and to claim the newly discovered continents was an extension of
the Crusades, which had failed to recover the Bible lands from the hands
of the Moslem usurpers. By combining the human love of adventure and
exploit, the greed for gain and empire, and the religious passion by which
the grosser motives were sanctified, the Latin countries of Europe were
stirred to an enthusiasm of conquest which swept them in both directions -v
around the world in this period. Thus the Catholic Church experienced
its most extensive and glorious era of missionary adventure and success.
There has been nothing comparable to it until the new era of expansion^
upon which that Church has entered in the twentieth century. The new
campaign is being conducted with more intelligence, more perfect organiza-
tion, more worthy methods and with vaster resources than the earlier
campaign. Whether it will be equally successful is to be determined by the
outcome. The conditions under which it is now to be conducted are entirely
different from those which, in the earlier period, made success easy.

This period of three hundred years, as we have seen, is characterized-
by polemical controversies, by political complications and by economic
developments which, so far as Protestantism is concerned, interfere with
the initiation of missionary activities. Such activities as we find will be
associated more or less with political movements, or will depend entirely
upon individual initiative and voluntary support. From the Protestant
standpoint, the missionary work, which becomes increasingly extensive in
the latter half of the period, will have its largest significance in its being
preparatory to the acceptance of the world as a field demanding evangeliza-
tion at the hands of vital Christianity. It is a preparation for a new period
of evangelical missions. It is obvious that from this point onward the
missionary efforts of the two different, distinct branches of Christendom
will need to be treated mainly as separate movements.

IX

EFFORTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD

I. OF THE HOI,Y ORTHODOX CHURCH

GREEK Catholic missions in this period call for but a brief paragraph.
From about 1200 the Greek Church was mainly occupied for five
hundred years with internal adjustments, schismatic conflicts, strifes
over patriarchal successions and the location of sees ; with the problems
imposed by the Mongol invasions which for a time engulfed the whole of
Russia; and with conflicts, contentions, warfares, secessions and repres-
sions between Russian political and religious rulers on the one hand and
Roman Catholic Germanic rulers on the other hand, which kept the border
states in long extended confusion. The Mongol rulers were in principle
tolerant of all faiths, and gave opportunity for Russian efforts at evan-
gelization among the pagans, even within the Central Asian seats of
empire. Even after their acceptance of the Mohammedan religion, the
Mongol rulers were still tolerant and punished Christian representatives
only when provoked by their intolerance or because of lack of understanding
of the inability of Christians to consent to share in the practice of communal
rites and ceremonies.

With the rise of Peter the Great and the extension of the empire east-
ward, the Russian Church entered upon a period of mild missionary aggres-
siveness, undertaking to. incorporate the inhabitants of all new territory
into their own church. Peter adopted and pursued a policy of liberal'
tolerance of religions already held by subjugated peoples, yet aided the
missionary efforts of the Church by financial support, by official patronage,
and by political preferments. It is to be regretted that the Church, how-
ever, continued to be more concerned with orthodoxy, regularity, and
uniformity than with evangelization and the cultivation of vital religious
experience. In 1685, thirty-one Russians, including a priest, were carried
captive to Peking and became a permanent colony. Their congregation
received ecclesiastical ^ recognition and was commanded to preach to
Chinese. There is no evidence of any efforts to meet this opportunity
until in the twentieth century.

II. 0? THE ROMAN CHURCH

We have already seen that we are now entering upon a most remarkable
period of Roman Catholic expansion; and have summarized the influences
which produced it. Conquest, colonization and annexation in the islands
and on the two American continents built up great Portuguese and Spanish
empires by which the Church experienced, de facto, corresponding in-
crease. All this advance was made " in accordance with the will of Christ,"

97

98 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

"for the glory of the Church," and "for the good of the pagans." On
these grounds all methods were sanctified and all abuses and inhumanities
condoned, if not justified. Both within Europe and elsewhere, so far as
the different conditions required or permitted, the Church made use of
all available political influence, diplomacy and strategy in retaining and
extending territory and following. The method of group inclusions and
mass conversions was everywhere employed. Practically all of South
N and Central America and Mexico were made Catholic, with the erection of a
, State Church in each newly established political unit. A very large part
of the Indian population was incorporated and amalgamated with the in-
vading races; yet large numbers of the Indians had no real insight into
the faith of the Church into which they were baptized, and retained many
of their pagan practices, while yet others escaped into the regions beyond
the effective control of the colonists and have retained their older pagan-
ism and superstitions until the present day. In Mexico and Central America
ithe heathen were practically all baptized and to a distressing extent their
'jieathenism was baptized along with them. Many of their idols were re-
christened with the names of Christian "saints," their sacred places were
dedicated for Christian pilgrimages and miraculous manifestations, their
I seasonable festivals were merged with those already adopted and developed
within the Church. All the islands of the Gulf of Mexico and numerous
groups in the wider seas were brought into the Church, although the
natives were often repressed and sometimes exterminated. A large part of
North America experienced the benefits of ardent missionaries and the
influence of exploiting traders and colonizing settlers. The subsequent
conquest of Spanish and French territory by the British and the growth
and expansion of the United States displaced the formal control of the
territory by Catholic political powers. The Catholic Church continues to
hold a large following and to exercise great influence in the United States
and in eastern Canada. The hold which they gained upon the North
American Indians in this period has been followed up, so that large numbers
of them remain under the influence and tutelage of the Church. The
Philippine Islands were won and constituted into a possession of Spain
and a province of the Roman Church, except for a Mohammedan section
in the Island of Sulu, which resisted conversion and retained its religious
integrity. Gains in Malaysia were never great, and were not permanent,
with very limited exceptions. We shall have to note extensive endeavours
and large successes in China and Japan.

In Europe the Catholics succeeded in retaining Austria, Italy, Spain
and Portugal solidly, loyally and intolerantly Catholic. After bitter conflict,
with outcome doubtful, in Germany and the neighbouring states the Catholic
Church yielded after the Peace of Westphalia (1648), but remained a
strong factor with recognized legal standing. In France the Church was
able to procure the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, hi 1685, and to
enter upon a course which resulted in the death or starvation of half a
million Protestants and the expatriation or reduction to a condition which
amounted to political and economic slavery for two million more. These
methods and conditions held the French people mainly within the Church,

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD 99

but did not prevent them from going into various forms of rationalism and
secularism, even while formally in the Church. In Great Britain, Catholics
and Protestants alternated in authority, and each gave the other occasion
to attain into the glory and blessedness of martyrdom. Protestantism finally
gained the ascendancy, except in Ireland, which prides itself on being " the
most Catholic" of all lands.

It is more pertinent and pleasing to take account of the missionary work
in regions where, lacking political control, the Church devoted itself to
more Christian missionary operations, not forgetting that even where
political rule made possible compulsory methods there was still much of
genuine spiritual effort by devoted and consecrated missionary workers.
The older monastic missionary orders of Benedict, Francis, Dominicus
threw multitudes of workers into these far-flung fields of opportunity.
The Augustinians entered the list. In 1534 a group of Spanish young
teachers and students in the University of Paris formed a volunteer band
pledged "to undertake a mission to the Mohammedans in Palestine, or if
not practicable there, then wherever the Pope might send them." Out of
this developed the "Society of Jesus," whose first " General " was Ignatius
Loyola. The members of the order were subjected to the absolute control
of their Superior and held themselves ready to go at a moment's notice to
any part of the world. The. motto adopted by the Jesuits, " For the
Greater Glory of God," stated an end which was supposed to sanctify any
means which would contribute toward it. In 1542 this order was formally
recognized by the Pope and speedily became one of the most powerful
factors in the support of the papacy, in the rule of the Church and in the
extension into new territory.

INDIA

One of the founders of the Society of Jesus was its first missionary to
the East and one of the most notable missionaries in the history of the
Roman Church, one whose fame is perpetuated by the use of his name to
designate schools, churches, streets and business enterprises throughout
the Catholic world. Probably no other name of a Catholic saint is so
widely known as that of Francis Xavier. In 1540 he left, on one day's
notice, for Goa in the Portuguese settlement of India. Here he began
work which was extended later to Travancore on the opposite side of the
peninsula. He was a N restless soul with a great passion for the lost, whom
he believed could be saved by the application of the sacraments of baptism
and confirmation. In the midst of perishing millions he could not take
time even to learn the languages of the people, nor to provide the instru-
ments and equipment of a permanent Christianity. He did not discount
the importance of these, and earnestly pleaded for other missionaries who
would provide them, as well as for helpers to extend his own methods
of quick evangelism. He attracted a hearing by ringing bells in the streets
and by other devices, gave elementary instruction and applied the holy
water of baptism to many thousands of natives. On occasion he would
assemble a crowd on the banks of a stream, enter with a brush from a
tree, consecrate the water and pronounce the baptismal formula and " bap-

ioo THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

tize" the people on the bank wholesale. For three years he laboured in
the Goa region and on into the Travancore section, and across the straits
in the Jaffna Kingdom of Ceylon. He undertook to induce the Portuguese
Viceroy at Goa to intervene by force in Jaffna, first to avenge the slaughter
of some who had been baptized, and second to set upon the throne a
brother who pledged himself to become a Christian and lead all his subjects
to baptism. This was all agreed upon, but intervening events prevented
its execution. By 1545, notwithstanding amazing numerical results in bap-
tisms and the fact that he had gained control for the Jesuits of the Portu-
guese schools in Goa and had full government backing, Xavier felt that
the work was too slow. In a long letter to King John III. he elaborated
a plan and pressed it with such force as to bring to the Viceroy a royal
order : " That all idols shall be sought out and destroyed, and severe penal-
ties shall be laid upon all such as shall dare to make an idol ... or shall
shelter or hide a Brahman." Special favours and concessions are to be
made to the Christians "in order that the natives may be inclined to
submit themselves to the yoke of Christianity." This did not go the full
length of applying the inquisition sought by Xavier, but did thoroughly
commit the official authority and finance to the promoting of what the
King confessed to be the " most essential duty of a Christian prince, namely,
attention to the interests of religion and the employment of one's active
influence in maintaining the Catholic faith." Xavier sought to have "re-
sponsibility for the dissemination of Christianity" "in every case depend
entirely upon the Viceroy or Governor," and that the continuance of any
one in office be conditioned on satisfactory reports "concerning the num-
ber and quality" of their converts and the method employed to effect
conversion.

For two or three years Xavier laboured in his hurried and superficial
but most earnest way in Burma, Java, and on toward the Straits. In
1548-9 he was again in India for fifteen months. He writes to Loyola
that the natives "can never be expected to embrace Christianity" freely.
Without compulsion "we must . . . limit ourselves to retaining those who
are already Christians." Even for this, coercion was invoked. He led in
the efforts to persuade and compel the Syrian Christians to enter the
Roman Church. In 1599 this was fully effected in Portuguese territory.
After his two years' work inaugurating Catholic missions in Japan, this
unremitting worker was again in India for a few months before setting
out to try to press into China. He died at the door, on the island of
Sanchan near Canton, in December, 1552. His body was returned for
pompous burial in Goa. In 1922, part of a bone from one of his arms
was taken to Spain and escorted by a commission headed by an Arch-
bishop on a three months' tour of the major cities, to be received with
great ecclesiastical, political and popular honour until it was deposited in
a convent in Barcelona.

The mission inaugurated by Xavier was to the masses. A half century
later, Robert de Nobili undertook the winning of India from the . top.
He not only learned the languages, studied the literature and sought an
Intelligent mastery of the life and thought of the people; he became a

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD 101

social Brahmin, adopted Hindu forms of worship and adapted their cere-
monies to the Roman forms, and aimed at winning by accepting the
social caslje system and dominating through the higher castes. This
brought on a bitter controversy between the advocates of the two methods
of missionary work. The Pope inclined to the approval of the simpler
methods. De Nobili defended himself with vigorous reasoning and claimed
that he was following the example of Paul in adapting himself to the
opinions of the people and preaching to them "the unknown God." Both
types of work succeeded, so far as gaining converts is proof of success.
The conflicts were ultimately measurably reconciled or adjusted and Cath-
olic Christianity was perpetuated in India. The Roman Church claimed
to have a million members when Carey came to India, but it had sunk
into such ineffectiveness as left it a doubtful influence until revived
after 1822.

To these two quite distinct types of work we must add a third. It was
a Jesuit mission to the Mohammedans. A chief representative was
Geronimo, a nephew of Francis Xavier, who, in 1610, baptized three
princes, while the Akbar was reported to reverence the images of Jesus
and Mary. Xavier wrote, for his Moslem work, Lives of Christ and Saint
Peter, and a discussion of Islam as a religion. Many thousands of con-
verts even encouraged hope for a time that Christianity might supplant
both Mohammedanism and Brahmanism.

Among the many martyr missionaries of this period was Xavier Bor-
ghese. When commanded to "refrain from mentioning the Holy Name "
he said to the judge : " Think you that I left my country and all that was
dear to me on earth, and came here to preach the law of the true God . . .
only to keep silence now? I declare to you that ... I will employ all
that remains of me of life and power to make new disciples to the God
of heaven." The judge, seeking to show that the converts would be
lacking in courage, "ordered his soldiers to break the bones of one of
his catechists," who called to his master: "Now I begin to be your dis-
ciple. Do not fear, dear father, that I shall do anything unworthy of a
Christian."

The Abbe Dubois, who returned to France in 1823, after thirty-two years
in south India, believed that missionary work had been a failure and would
continue to fail.

THS PHILIPPINES

Magellan landed in the Philippines in 1521. Friendly relations were
immediately established by a blood covenant with the king of the Island
of Cebu. With great breadth of sympathy and insight, he invited the
king and his subjects to become Christians, and offered that his accom-
panying priest would baptize them and that "he would return on a
future day, and bring with him priests and monks to. .instruct them in all
things belonging to our holy religion." He is said to have offered them
no material advantage and to have assured them that no compulsion would
be exerted to win them from the religion of their fathers. His historian
concedes, however, that Magellan " did not disguise that those who should

102 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

become Christians would be more beloved and better dealt with." The
outcome was that the king was baptized, along with certain other nobles,
and plain people, all together five hundred. Next the queen accepted
baptism and received an image of Mary and the infant Jesus to substi-
tute her idols. She was christened with the name of Jane, after the
mother of the Spanish Emperor, while the names of Catherine and Isa-
bella were conferred upon other royal women. In this quick and dramatic
fashion the first mission to the Philippines accomplished its work. In
1564 a new group of six missionaries, headed by Urdinaeta, were sent
by Philip II., by way of Mexico, to continue the good work. They were
attended by a regiment of four hundred soldiers! Thus Mexico became
the base of operations between Spain and the Philippines. A trade route
was opened up and numerous priests travelled with the emissaries of
trade and empire, and built up in these islands a bulwark of the Catholic
faith in the far Pacific, and soon made it the base for further missionary
operations in China and Japan.

A NSW MISSIONARY ERA IN CHINA

The fascinating and romantic story of how the intrepid missionaries
broke through the closed doors of China cannot be told here. A Chinese
adventurer, one Li Ma Hong, in the pursuit of his piracies, attacked also
"the New Christendom." Missionary monks took part in the preserva-
tion of the Spanish rule. This event brought them into friendly relation-
ships with the leader of a Chinese expedition seeking to destroy Li Ma
Hong. Even so, the missionaries were not able to win their way into
China. Already, however, Albuquerque had learned that slaves of any
nationality might be carried into China, and had sought to enter as the
slave of a Chinese merchant captain, but was prohibited from undertaking
it by the governor. In connection with the efforts to capture the pirate
leader, certain missionaries secured permission to enter China, but were
killed when the Spanish were unable to deliver the bandit to the Chinese
officials. At the request of the governor of the Philippines, Philip sought
to send an embassy to Peking, but found this impracticable. A special
group of missionaries, destined for China by way of Mexico, met with
various disasters, none of them even reaching Manila. In 1578 a Fran-
ciscan, Pedro de Alfaro, unable to secure the approval of the governor to
defy the dangers and enter China at the head of fourteen volunteers,
selected three and secretly got to Canton, but was not able to make any
permanent beginning.

It was for the Jesuits, under the leadership of Matteo Ricci, to make a suc-
cessful entrance. Beginning in South China, in 1583, he reached Peking in
1601. The engaging story is too long to be told here. It begins with Francis
Xavier, whose failure to enter China is chargeable to politics and trade greed.
An Italian, Alessandro Valignani, stopped at Macao, on his way officially to
visit the Jesuit missions in Japan, about 1578, and became greatly concerned
to open China. He called Ruggerius to Macao in 1579, and others, including
Matteo Ricci, in 1582. They reached a few Chinese in Macao. In 1583 Rug-
gerius and Ricci succeeded in locating in Chaoching, then capital of Kwang-

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD 103

tung. With great skill and patience Ricci slowly broke down the prejudice
and got farther on toward the capital, and finally located there, in 1601.

The Spanish Franciscans and Dominicans continued their approach from
the Philippine base, where also they were reaching immigrant Chinese.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, French Jesuits entered with the
backing of Louis XIV. In furthering this effort, there gradually developed
the Societe des Missions fitrangieres, one of the major missionary organiza-
tions of the Roman Church.

The Portuguese at Macao claimed and demanded priority control over
all approaches to China, and were at times defiant of even papal authority.
This and the national jealousies, rivalries of the monastic orders, and
radical differences over methods in dealing with Chinese social and re-
ligious customs, hindered the progress of the work and encouraged official
suspicion and opposition. Ricci was something of a scientist, skilled UK
mathematics, and had some knowledge of astronomy. By using this knowl-
edge, -these Jesuits were able to get recognition and win favour at court,
and thus to make way for their new period of missionary activity. When,
in 1610, the Chinese astronomers and the foreigners differed hi the pre-
dicted date of an eclipse of the moon, the moon adopted the schedule of
the missionaries, which event established the missionaries in a position of
great favour and opportunity. They made for the Emperor better maps
than any previously known and ornamented them with Scripture texts
and symbols. An official by the name of Seu, and his daughter, were bap-
tized, and through their influence brought about the building of numerous
churches in different provinces and otherwise promoted the Christian work.
The new missionary campaign in China thus begun, continued for ap-
proximately one hundred and fifty years, during which time five hundred
missionaries gave themselves to the -service in China. Among them were
men of great distinction. Adam Schall became the royal astronomer and
was succeeded by Ferdinand Verbiest. These missionaries at the court
were able to procure~a~large "measure of freedom for operations in various
directions in the empire. Some men of eminent position and a few with
royal blood accepted the Christian faith.

The Jesuits made compromises with heathenism in their zeal for sue- 1
cess. Conflicts arose between them, and the members of the Dominican
and the Franciscan orders. With their growing numbers and prestige,
some of the missionaries grew too bold in their efforts to influence the
authorities. The increasing aggressiveness of the European empire build-
ers, reaching out into the East, aroused apprehensions which were not
allayed by the too self-confident missionaries from Europe. While rela-
tions were already strained, the Manchus displaced the Chinese rulers. It
seemed now wise to the authorities to eliminate foreign influence. All
missionaries and other foreigners were ordered to leave, Christianity was
discredited and the Christians persecuted, and the doors of China were
closed to all foreign residence. It was not possible, however, to stamp
out the results of this campaign. Catholic Christianity continued in China
under native leadership and with clandestine foreign supervision from time
to time. After various examples of persecution, an Edict of Expulsion,

104 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

was followed by organized general persecution in 1744. There
were no aggressive efforts on the part of Chinese Catholics to extend their
faith beyond the Christian families until the return of missionary leadership
in the nineteenth century.

PLANTING THE CHURCH IN JAPAN

Xavier's entrance into Japan opened a missionary era extending from
T S49 to 1637, during which the Catholic authorities claimed that they won
as many as two million converts. Xavier had as his companion Cosme de
Torres, who was a man of organizing ability and had gifts of leadership.
He was able to carry forward the work in ways to make it permanent.
He succeeded in winning two Buddhist monks soon after his work began.
He baptized them tinder the names of Paul and Barnabas. Some of the
feudal lords accepted Christianity. Especially in the Island of Kiu Shiu
the missionaries gained a large following, and great influence in the city
of Nagasaki, where a church was built in 1562. The missionaries even
claimed that "there was hardly a person who was not a Christian." The
daimio was too aggressive, seeking to destroy all idolatry, and provoked
revolt. Missionaries came in from the Philippines, Dominicans, Fran-
ciscans and Augustinians. Converts were made and churches established
on the main island, Hondo. The missionaries of the different orders came
into conflict with each other here, as in India and in China. The Japanese
were already jealous of their own superiority and importance. The Bud-
dhist priests were naturally averse to propaganda in behalf of an alien
faith, quite overlooking the fact that their own religion was an importation.
Japanese territory had never been sufficient for more than their own
people, and immigration was undesirable in any degree. The rulers were
apprehensive of the growing extension of European imperialism in the
Pacific. The missionaries were thoroughly European in their attitudes
and habits of mind, and were known to be encouraged and patronized by
European rulers. Some of them, with a foolish daring, when questioned
about the ambitions of their sovereigns, boldly announced that they would
occupy and possess territory even in Japan. All these considerations com-
bined to precipitate a period of persecution which for severity, thorough-
ness and the numbers of martyrs probably more than matches the Roman
persecutions of the Christians in the first century. The effort was made
absolutely to exterminate the new religion, to drive out all foreigners and
forever to secure the Japanese realm from pernicious, alien influences. A
proclamation was issued and posted through the empire to the effect that:
" So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as
to come to Japan, and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the
Christian's God, or the great God of all, if he violates this command, shall
pay the forfeit with his head."

The instruction of the converts was at best very inadequate. It is but
natural that they reverted, outwardly at least, to their old faith. Thirty-
seven thousand are said to have been slain. In the final round-up the
Christians were herded and driven over the precipice into the sea at
Nagasaki. All foreigners were absolutely prohibited from entrance into

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD 105

Japan, foreign trade was restricted to the smallest proportions, to be con-
ducted exclusively through a Dutch trading port on a small island near
Nagasaki; and to insure that no contaminating foreign influence would
invade, it was decreed that any Japanese who by accident of shipwreck
or otherwise should ever reach foreign territory, must forever remain out-
side his native land. In secret, Christianity was perpetuated through the -
two centuries of closed doors. Many thousands of Japanese identified
themselves openly with the Catholic Church immediately on the modern
freedom. Native Christians built an enormous church building in Nagasaki
in the years following 1873.

Within this period the Church undertook missions in Syria and Persia,
but they were limited almost wholly to winning Greek Orthodox, Nes-
torian and Armenian Christians and other minor Christian sects. While
they Won some proselytes, it always involved concessions to their customs
and compromise in creed or liturgy. The main effect was the weakening
of these other churches, without either reforming them or completely ab-
sorbing them. Along the African coasts many were baptized, but few were
indoctrinated or brought to a worthy understanding of Christianity.

This widespread and in some ways remarkably successful campaign of
Catholic missions must reluctantly be adjudged as in large measure a
spiritual failure. The faith was presented too much as an external and
ceremonial system, rather than as a regenerative and vital force in the
lives of individuals and in the social organism. It was too much in the
nature of an exchange of religions, and Christianity was not made a
truly progressive force in the life of the people which should ever lead
on to constructive growth in civilization and culture. Numbers were
procured at the price of corrupting compromises with heathenism. The
indistinguishable connection of the 1 missionary movement with commercial
aggrandizement and political expansion made it impossible for the average
native in mission lands to see that the immoral and inhuman behaviour
of the European "Christians" was not a part of the new religion which
they were invited or compelled to accept. The Christianity which came
to them was often morally revolting to the consciences of the more ad-
vanced in spiritual insight. The banishment of missionaries from Japan
and China and the organized suppression of the religion brought definite
check to its growth. The rivalries of the priestly orders produced frictions
and antagonisms within the Christian following and made unfavourable
impression on the heathen. The divergencies of method contributed to
the confusion of mind and lessened the attractiveness of the missionary
religion. Everywhere these missions failed to give the people the Scrip-
tures in their own languages. It was quite impossible for a religion to
become indigenous whose Bible and much of whose worship was in a
language foreign not alone to the worshippers, but even to their priests
and missionary leaders. Christianity was not really planted as a living
factor, native to the soil, in any land except where that land was itself
taken over by immigrant colonists who became the dominating factor in
the' socia^ and political organism, and where by racial amalgamation they
also gave racial character to the population.

106 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

III. PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN TH FOURTH PERIOD

How the Protestants were ultimately led into the taking up of missions
as a distinct Christian enterprise and the different churches to take them
up officially we shall have to consider in the next chapter. Here we have
to consider the work as it was actually undertaken and carried forward
during this period.

First of all we come upon a series of what may well be called Colonial
Missions. These were in connection with the colonies as they began to
be established by the different Protestant countries. For the most part
they were at first more or less undesigned ministries to the heathen on
the part of ministers who were provided not for the heathen, but for the
colonists. They have something of a political character and relationship.
They are also sometimes intimately identified with commercial enter-
prises and trading companies. There is a rather gradual transition into
undertakings more or less distinctly missionary and with more definitely
spiritual motives inspiring them.

The earliest of the colonial attempts proved abortive, but is of, interest
because of being the first. Durand Villegaignon professed the Protestant
faith and led a French colony to Brazil, in 1555, to form a base for>
evangelical missionary operations in South America. He had the patron-
age of a powerful Protestant Admiral, Coligny, and the support of Calvin.
After reaching Brazil, and before the work was well started, he returned to
the Catholic Church and destroyed the colony. French Protestants under-
took no other enterprise until the more modern era.

Gustavus Vasa, of Sweden, undertook to have the Lapps evangelized,
fa I 559 by sending preachers along with the state representatives who
went to regulate political affairs and collect taxes. Similar work was
fostered among their subjects by Charles IX. and Gustavus Adolphus.
None of this work was ever truly evangelical, and naturally was not
effective, until Thomas von Westen, about 1710, entered upon the work
as a real missionary. He died in 1727 and had no successors until after
the middle of the nineteenth century.

EXTENSIVE DUTCH MISSIONS

By the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch were entering
vigorously on a colonial career. Colonial and foreign trade was con-
centrated under the control of the Dutch East India Company, in 1602,
and the Dutch West India Company, in 1621. The East India Company
was required by its charter "to care for the planting of the Church and
the conversion of the heathen" in the possessions in the East Indies,
which the Dutch had taken from the Portuguese. The clergy sent to
minister to the colonists were at first the only missionaries. In 1622 a
"Seminarium Indicum" was founded in connection with the University
of Leyden for training ministers and missionaries for the colonies. This
was a fine beginning, and promised intelligent and aggressive progress,
but the seminary was discontinued after a dozen years, on the ground
that the students were too thoroughly trained in the missionary spirit,
so that they gave too much attention to the heathen, and because the

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD 107

worldly merchants who directed the company were unwilling to provide
the funds for its maintenance, and they had been charged with this.
Batavia, in Java, became the official capital and centre of the entire Dutch
East Indies, and consequently the centre of missionary operations extend-
ing into parts of Malaysia and as far as Formosa. The entire Bible was
translated into Malay and Singhalese, and parts of the New Testament
into Formosan. Schools were established in the different colonies for
the training of native workers. In spite of all this scientific procedure
in the home provisions, most of the work among the heathen was super-
ficial and was conducted on wrong principles when it came to details. It
was always involved with politics and with commercial development.
Colonial clergy were allowed to increase their income beyond their small
salaries by a per capita payment for natives baptized. This furnished an
artificial stimulus to counting converts which, at least in some cases, worked
to the detriment of solid spiritual Christian founding.

In Java and the smaller adjacent island of Amboyna the greatest num-
ber of converts were won. Justus Heurnius was one of the earliest and
most able and devoted of the missionaries. Son of a medical professor,
and with a most liberal education, he studied theology and would have
gone to India as a missionary but that the trading companies of both
his own country and England at that time opposed missions in their
territory. He was a vigorous advocate of missions, publishing a book
for that purpose in 1618. In 1624 he went to Batavia and went to work
at once among Malays and Chinese. Besides doing literary work, he was
a devoted evangelist. Because he sought to have the Church on the
mission field freed from the control of the East India Company, he was
thrown into prison. Later he took up work on Amboyna. Here he came
in contact with Mohammedan missionaries, who are charged with having
poisoned his food and left him with infirmities from which he never wholly
recovered. After returning to Holland, he continued extensive literary
work for use by the missionaries. A hundred thousand nominal converts*
were claimed in Java. In Amboyna they were relatively even more
numerous.

The Dutch took possession of Ceylon in 1658, robbing the Portuguese,'
as elsewhere in the East. Here they founded schools, translated the
Scriptures and made other contributions to literature and general culture.
In die matter of converts, they made the holding of office and the pos-'
session of lands dependent on acceptance of baptism and the Calvinistic
confession. Missionary work was extended to Sumatra and to several
groups of islands. By the first quarter of the eighteenth century more
than four hundred thousand members were claimed for the Dutch churches
in the East Indies. Many converts had been won from Mohammedans
as well as from pagans. It has to be confessed, however, that the work
was so superficial that the Mohammedans found it easy to revert to their
former faith when political pressure was removed and material induce-
ments no longer held them. And there is probably some ground for
the bitter charge that the transfer of primitive peoples from paganism
to Roman Catholicism under Portuguese domination, and thence to Pres-

io8 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

byterianism under Dutch control served only to make "bad Roman
Catholics " out of " blind idolaters," and later to convert them into " worse
Protestants."

x The Dutch occupied Formosa from 1624 until 1661, when they were
driven out by the Chinese. Here they conducted vigorous missionary
work which enlisted two or three men of exceptional ability. They adopted
methods which ought to have left permanent results. Besides learning
the language thoroughly and instructing their converts in the Christian
faith, they trained native workers and undertook to provide schools for all
the Christians. They made translations and produced the beginnings of
a Christian literature. Yet the missionaries usually remained only a short
time in the island, only two serving as much as a dozen years. With the
expulsion of the Dutch by the Chinese, Protestant Christianity was largely
destroyed and dissipated in the island.

In the West Indies the Dutch had a colony in Pernambuco where the
governor-general, Johann Moritz, brought eight missionary preachers and
began some genuine missionary work along wise lines which might have
produced effective results; but the Dutch found it too costly to seek to
withstand the Portuguese and gave up the colony in 1667. From the
Court of Gotha embassaries were sent to Persia and to Abyssinia, in
1663, with the view to establishing relations with these countries and
with evangelical missions particularly in mind, but no good results
followed.

DANISH COLONIAL MISSIONS

Next in order are the colonial missions in Denmark. The king,
Frederick IV., in 1705, asked Luetkins, his court preacher, to procure
missionaries for the colonies, as two previous efforts in this direction had
failed. Luetkins went to his Pietistic friends, Lange at Berlin and
Francke at Halle. In this way there arose what is known as the Danish-
Halle mission, so called because it was promoted and supported by the
Danish government while the missionaries came from the University of
Halle. It is also frequently known as the Danish-Tamil mission, after
the name of the principal Indian peoples reached by the mission. Ziegen-
balg and Pliitschau were the first two of a line of splendid workers who
went out to India and conducted a work which continued for one hundred
and twenty years, when it was turned over to the Leipzig Society. From
1714 missionaries were trained in a college set up for this purpose at
Copenhagen. These missionaries gave themselves to the most earnest and
intelligent propagation and establishment of the Gospel, and were able to
claim forty thousand converts. The greatest name connected with this
mission is Christian Frederick Schwartz, a man of. prodigious energy,
enduring physique, trained and comprehensive mind, singular devotion and
unfailing skill and tact. He laboured from various centres, Tranquebar
(1750-65), Trichinopoly (1765-77), Tanjore (177799) and Tinnevelly.
He served the British as a chaplain and used his salary to build an
orphanage, and enlisted funds for the support of his work. He won the
confidence of British, Dutch and native authorities, and was of very great

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD 109

service in mediating between natives and foreigners. Over his grave
there was inscribed a noble tribute : " His native vivacity won the affection,
as his unspotted probity and purity of life alike commanded the reverence
of Christian, Mohammedan and Hindu. The very marble that here records
his virtues was raised by the liberal affection and esteem of the Rajah of
Tanjore, Maha Rajah Serfogee."

THE BRITISH COLONIES

The British entered upon their colonial career in the sixteenth cen-
tury. In both east and west some chaplains to the colonists took interest
in natives and made some converts. Theoretically the colonization move-
ment was supposed to include efforts to Christianize the natives. The
charter of the Massachusetts Company, 1628, provided that they were
to "win and incite the natives ... to the knowledge and obedience of
the only true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith."
The official seal of the company bore an Indian supplicating the white
settler, "Come over and help us." The practical relations between colon-
ists and natives developed an attitude for the most part far from mis-
sionary. While some work was done by clergy and laymen in various
colonies, this was by no means the uniform and consistent procedure. The
work of evangelization in connection with British colonies was done largely
on the initiative of zealous Christian men and by support of means procured
apart from political and commercial movements, and often with the dis-
couragement and opposition of the secular organizations. Missionary work
directly associated with secular movements in this period largely failed
of support with the rise of rationalism in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, and furnished abundant proof to all who would seriously consider
it, that the extension of Christianity cannot hope for success in any such
combination. The way was prepared, however, for the rising tide of mission-
ary conviction to bear onward the work as a distinctly Christian undertaking.

MORE DEFINITELY MISSIONARY UNDERTAKINGS

More distinctly missionary undertakings in this period will include some
of the colonial missions which were gradually transferred to Christian
organizations. They include also some purely tentative efforts which failed
objectively but did serve as inspiration and example for Christian people
in the face of a compelling opportunity among new peoples.

Hugo Grotius, one of the outstanding Dutch statesmen, was also a
theologian and a devoted Christian leader. While engaged as minister to
France he influenced some young men from Lubeck, who were students
in Paris, to commit themselves "to awaken the lapsed churches in the
East to new evangelical life," 1634. The only tangible outcome was that
produced by Peter Heiling who, after spending two years in Egypt, went
on for a ministry of twenty years in Abyssinia. He translated the New
Testament, married into the royal family, and exercised some influence
for more evangelical Christianity, but finally suffered martyrdom. He was
hindered in his efforts by the Jesuit missionaries, and no efforts were made
to continue his work.

no THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

We must mention here the Austrian Baron von Weltz, whose vigorous
efforts to stimulate distinctly Christian missions in Germany we shall
outline in the next chapter, who at length undertook personal missionary
labours on his own initiative and support in Dutch Guiana. His labours
continued for only a year or two until he died in the jungles, about 1675.
The Walloon Synod undertook definitely to provide for the Dutch colonies
in America clergymen who would be qualified also for missionary ser-
vice. The Synod undertook to provide missionary literature and to pay
part of the salaries in consideration of the ministers' labours among the
Indians, the burden of financial support being provided, of course, by the
corporation.

In connection with the English colonies in America, Roger Williams
has the distinction of being the first to learn to speak well the language
of the natives and to work with success for their conversion. As is well
known, he was forced out of the Massachusetts Colony because of his in-
dependent views concerning religion and the Church, which views he
probably did not take pains to present in a way to avoid personal resent-
ments. In his own Rhode Island region he became greatly interested in
the Indians. On returning to England, after twelve years in America,
1643, ne published a volume of more than two hundred pages, which he
called "A Key into the Language of America: or An help to the Language
of the Natives in that part of America, called New England, Together
with brief Observations of the Customes, Manners and Worships &c of
the aforesaid Natives." After the frequent custom of the day, the title
page is filled out with much more, descriptive of the object of the book.
He felt that for want of knowledge of the language, customs and ideas
of the natives he and others had " run into " many " grosse mistakes." He
hopes that by the use of this "Key" "it may please the Father of Mer-
cies to spread civtttie (and in his own most holy season) Christianitie for
one Candle will light ten thousand, it may please God to blesse a little
Leaven to season the mightie Lump of those Peoples and Territories." He
" touches upon f cure Heads " : " First, by what Names they are disting-
uished. Secondly, Their Originall and Descent. Thirdly, their Religion,
Manners, Customs, &c. Fourthly, That great Point of their Conversion"
When Williams returned to America with official recognition of his colony
he brought also a letter to the Massachusetts colony giving as a reason for
his recognition his great interest in the Indians. This seemed directly to
stimulate activity on the part of the older colony, which proceeded to
empower its courts to "take order from time to time to have them in-
structed in the knowledge and worship of God." This action was the
occasion for the first employment of John Eliot, most noted of New
England missionaries to the Indians. Williams' extensive correspondence
reveals his profound concern for the salvation of the Indians. He pub-
lished a second work concerning this, which is lost. He spent six years
living in the midst of the Indians. No man surpassed him in intelligent
devotion to Christianizing them, and his interest continued throughout
his life.

In the same year, 1631, in which Williams first came to America, came

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD in

also the young 1 iron worker, John Eliot, who became pastor at Roxbury
and the first official missionary of the colony to the Indians. His earlier
labours were merely an extension of his pastoral work which he continued,
not without opposition on the part of some of his parishioners, who objected
to his devoting time to the Indians which they claimed should be expended
upon themselves. His work aroused interest in England, which resulted
in the formation of "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
BSfew England/' 1649, under which Eliot continued his activities, and other
missionaries were supported. He translated the Bible, published a gram-
mar, organized his converts. Finding it impossible to develop Indian
Christians satisfactorily in association with the unsettled tribes, he adopted
the method of establishing Christian villages, locating as many as thirteen.
These " Praying-Towns " were developed in other missions also.

These beginnings inaugurated an extensive movement of Indian missions
associated with the English colonies. Five generations of Mayhews car-
ried on work on Martha's Vineyard, where Thomas Mayhew, Sr., was pro-
prietor and governor and where, about 1670, the native communicants
numbered three thousand.

Among- those who devoted themselves with conviction and ability to
evangelization and to the education of the Indians first mention should
be made of Henry Dunster, first president of Harvard College. He had
already distinguished himself by his labours among them and by his in-
sistence that they must be evangelized and instructed in their own lan-
guage. On coming into the' presidency, he brought it about that a new
charter should provide that Harvard would undertake "the education of
the English and Indian youth of this country in knowledge and godli-
ness." In the face of strong opposition he insisted that the institution
should be " both a mission school and a missionary training school." This
aggressive mission policy may have played a part in his ejection from
the headship of Harvard, along with his Baptist resistance to the christening
of his children.

John Sergeant opened a school for Indians in Stockbridge which had
the support of men of various denominations, both in the colonies and hi
England. In fifteen years one hundred and twenty-nine Indians had been
baptized in connection with his work. Jonathan Edwards, America's great-
est theologian, philosopher and educator, spent six years at the head of
this same school before taking up his presidency of Princeton. He had\
been .reared at Stockbridge and had " constantly associated with the In-
dians from infancy." It was his father's ambition that Jonathan should
devote his life to missionary work, and to this end he had sent him, when-
only ten years old, into the forest with an Indian missionary, to learn the
language. Sergeant's son, John, Jr., entered later upon the same work
and continued it for forty-nine years at New Stockbridge, in New York.

Eleazar Wheelock, in 1743, yielded to the plea of an Indian widow to
take her son as a student in a private school which he was conducting at
Lebanon, Connecticut. Out of this grew a missionary training school,
removed after twenty-seven years to Hanover, New Hampshire, and later
developing into Dartmouth College. This first orphan Indian pupil was

ii2 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Samson Occum. He became an outstanding native missionary, of whom
a full biography was written. On a. tour of Great Britain, Occum pro-
cured fifty thousand dollars for the support of his work. He continued his
labours in various regions, from 1776 at a settlement in which migrating
Indians from different regions were combined under the name of Brotherton,
in western New York.

David Brainerd is one of the best known of all workers among the
Indians and his diary, edited by Jonathan Edwards, has been one of the
most powerful influences leading young men to volunteer for foreign mis-
sions ever since, especially during the first thirty years of the Student
Volunteer Movement. He had an abnormal, introspective pietism, which
expressed itself in a passion for the salvation of the Indians and of all the
heathen world, in a zeal so burning as to be almost incomprehensible to
most present-day Christians. He was to have married Edwards' daughter;
but, afflicted with tuberculosis in a day when its successful treatment was
unknown, he exposed himself to the hardships and rigours of life in the
forest with the Indians, and died at twenty-nine. He influenced William
Carey, and it was the reading of his life that decided Henry Martyn to
give himself to missionary work. Other English and colonial mission-
aries, although numerous and devoted, must be omitted from personal
mention.

MORAVIAN MISSIONS

The missionary enterprise of this period, which is most freely and
originally such, is that of the Moravians. Nicholaus Ludwig, Count von
Zinzendorf, came to study with Francke, at Halle, while still only a lad.
An orphan, he was reared by his grandmother and two aunts, all deeply
devoted to the Pietistic way. He met in this home, from his earliest
childhood, the great leaders of that movement, and responded to their
influence with a precocious piety. It is claimed that even from the age
of four he manifested the deepest religious interest. Yet he developed a
strong, vigorous, intelligent and balanced religious leadership, sustained
by a splendid physique. Of the nobility, he was destined for a political
career and educated in politics and the law. Still his interests were always
primarily in religion, and without formal permission he studied theology.
It will be remembered that missionaries were drawn from Halle for the
Danish Colonial missions. The young Count not only met missionaries
but also got acquainted with refugees from the persecutions of Protestants
in various parts of Europe, who found a haven in Halle. At the age of
fifteen, he united with other students to form an "order" whose "un-
wearied labour shall go through all the world, in order that we may win
hearts to Him Who gave His life for our souls." With his position in
society and state, he could not himself expect to be a missionary. With
another young nobleman, Frederick von Watteville, he entered upon a
compact "for the conversion of the heathen, and of such as no one else
would go to, by instruments to whom God would direct them." Two of
the principles which he early enunciated are, expressed in his own terms:
" I have but one passion, it is He, He only ;" " I know no Christianity with-

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE FOURTH PERIOD 113

out fellowship." Ludwig's grandfather had been driven out of Austria on
account of his evangelical faith. He was especially prepared, therefore,
to sympathize with the persecuted Moravians when, on the occasion of
his marriage, he met a commission of these " Brethren " seeking a location
to which they might lead a group who were ordered into exile. The
Count invited them to locate on his Berthelsdorf estate, where they set
up their Herrnhut in 1722. He took the greatest interest in them and
gave them the benefit of his genius for organization, so that they were
reorganized as the Unitas Fratrum, and under his leadership became the
most distinctly missionary "church" since the days of the apostles. In
1728, in a prayer-meeting under the lead of Zinzendorf, they determined
to begin work in "distant lands" at the first opportunity. They were
considering Turkey, Morocco, Greenland and Lapland. No opportunity
quickly offered. In 1731 the Count, along with three of the Brethren, met
in Copenhagen a West Indian negro and two Greenlanders. Conversa-
tions with these led to decision for immediate work, so soon as volunteers
could be found. Soon Tobias Leupold and Leonard Dober, labourers,
met one morning; and after exchange of greeting developed the fact
that each separately had spent the entire night in prayer and had dedi-
cated himself to the foreign mission service so soon as God would
find him a fellow. In the course of events, Leupold was unable to go.
David Nitzschmann then volunteered. Shortly these two were on their
way to the West Indies, to be followed two years later by a large com-
pany. Zinzendorf visited the missionaries on the Island of St. Thomas,
in 1739, and was thrilled with his observations. Thus the Moravians were
led into undertakings in widely scattered parts of the world; Persia, China,
Ceylon, the East Indies, Constantinople, Wallacia, Caucasus, Egypt, Samoa,
all of which were later suspended. In the West Indies, Greenland, Surinam,
South Africa, among American Indians, in Australia and elsewhere they
became effective and their results permanent. It is obvious that too much
was undertaken; their zeal was not always tempered with knowledge, their
methods were not always the wisest. It was their policy to undertake
work where no one had previously gone and where others were not likely
to go. This led them out of the way of the peoples who were making
history, and prevented their becoming a large factor in modern progress.
They were able to occupy so many places because their missions were
conducted on the principle of sacrificial devotion, moderate living and, as
far as possible, self-supporting missions. Their mission stations developed
various arts and activities for meeting expenses. Zinzendorf died in 1760,
but only after giving permanent missionary character and projection to
the Brotherhood. The Moravian has never become a large denominational
church, for the reasons that within Christendom it has never wished to
gain proselytes from any other church; and its mission work has been
in regions where a great following was impossible. They have been a
great influence in arousing missionary interest and leading the way to
missionary endeavour on the part of the larger denominations. In America,
they located with permanent projection of their people and influence, es-
pecially in North Carolina (Salem) and in western Pennsylvania. As

H4 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

would be expected, they entered vigorously upon missionary work among 1
the Indians. Their most outstanding missionary in America was David
Zeisberger. A man of robust body, untiring energy and unremitting zeal,
he laboured from 1745 to 1808, and opened twenty-seven stations in Penn-
sylvania and Ohio, in which numerous other missionaries were engaged.
It is well said that: "For length of service, for purity and singleness of
aim and for actual effectiveness no other missionary career in North
America approaches that of David Zeisberger."

While the earliest work in Greenland might be included as a part of
the Danish Colonial missionary work, its great missionary hero, Hans
Egede, and his son Paul deserve to be classed with the most genuine mis-
sionaries. No other motive prompted them to the terrific sacrifices and
hardships involved in largely unfruitful labours among these low-grade
natives and the all too worldly traders. Hans had to give up the work
after years of hardship, but was responsible for a training school at home
where missionaries were prepared. The Danish government was on the
point of abandoning the effort when the Moravian brethren came to the
rescue. Matthew and Christian Stach were the first of six generations of
missionaries of that name who, along with Christian David, began the
work in Greenland, in 1733. Others followed, including Matthew's mother
and two sisters. By 1748 the "New Herrnhut" had one hundred and
thirty members and began adding new stations. The work extended into
Labrador, where Jens Haven was the pioneer and John Sorenson laboured
with great ability and left the tribes of his particular mission all converted,
1793. The Danes also opened the way for missionary work in Northeast
India, but did not actually undertake it, and the beginnings belong to
British missionaries in the next period.

We have found it possible to record extensive work and achievements
which, although limited and disappointing, are still considerable and some-
times notable. Yet this period must, after all, be valued chiefly for its
preparation of the Christian Church definitely to undertake a campaign
of more truly evangelical missionary effort. We turn, therefore, now to
the consideration of the factors and influences which combined to educate
Christendom into the consciousness of their responsibility and to bring
about the acceptance of the duty of evangelizing the non-Christian world.

X

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA

MISSIONS are an enterprise of God. His providential control of the
world prepares the way for the spiritual task which He assigns to
the followers of His Son. The Christian movement is a part of the
general movement of history. The modern missionary era is intimately
related to, and inter-related with, the modern expansion of Christendom
and with the impact of Western trade, politics and culture on the life,
culture and religions of Africa and the Orient. The modern period in
missions is more similar in spirit, methods and achievements to the first
period than are any of the intervening periods. It would be easy to
trace a certain parallelism between the preparation for the coming of
the Christ and the inauguration of the first evangelical period and the
preparation along various lines for our modern period. Just as the pre-
vious history of Israel and the four hundred years in the Grseco-Roman
world constituted a well recognized preparation for the inauguration of
the campaign of a world-wide Gospel by Jesus Christ, so also the pre-
vious history of Christianity and the world movements of the three hun-
dred years preceding the work of William Carey led up to "the fullness
of the times" for the modern campaign of world-wide evangelical mis-
sions. We may think of this providential preparation especially along
three lines: First, preparation of the world to receive the Gospel; sec-
ond, preparation of the Church to give the Gospel to the world; third,
the development of means for bringing the Church to the world with the
Gospel. All three lines of preparation are continuous and in the nature
of the case always incomplete. They interact and become cumulative in
their effects. We shall, in this chapter, be thinking particularly of the
process by which the Protestant, and other evangelical, churches came into
their missionary undertakings.

I. PREPARATION OF THE WORIJ)

The process and the revelations of modern history have increasingly
brought into clearness the fact of man's religious nature and religious
need. That need cannot be obviated. The contacts between Europe and
Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries increasingly impressed
this need upon the consciousness of Christendom, gradually awakening
the Christian conscience to its responsibility. While the tests which are
being applied to the religions of mankind are widely different in the
present century from what they were two centuries ago, or even one cen-
tury ago, it is equally true that the religions of mankind are still a proof
of man's religious nature and need. Modern scientific study of religion
and religions has not at all modified the basal conclusions of the previous

"5

ii6 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

age concerning the religious nature of mankind, but has greatly heightened
the sense of the importance that all men shall have the best in religion.
The forms which our reasoning takes have changed, and the sentiments
with which we view religions other than our own have been modified.
Yet it remains true that the interaction of the world's cultures upon each
other shows the inevitable relation of religion to human nature and life,
and calls for the apostolic attitude of sharing with all others the highest
gifts of God to any group of men. With the modern development in all
parts of the world the inadequacies of religions which are sectional and
sectarian become more and more evident. The sense of need is devel-
oped in all those who have sought satisfaction in religions which may
once have seemed peculiarly appropriate for less developed stages of life.
A hungering and thirsting after something better is awakened in the
hearts of men; and they will welcome any who come to them as proph-
ets and messengers of God, provided they do not come in the guise
of mere propagandists of a rival system nor with any mark of racial
pride.

Nature religion had left men in animism, with its demonalatry and
savagery. Pantheism had done its best on a wide scale through the
Brahmanic faith, and had issued in Hinduism with its superstitions and
base practices, which not all its high philosophy had prevented or was
in any measure correcting. It had been able to produce an India which,
with its two hundred millions of population when the modern era opened,
was the easy prey to foreign occupation and control. Buddhism, through
two millenniums, had tested out a practical pessimism based on a theo-
retical atheism. The mass outcome was the grossest idolatry; and in all
countries where Buddhism had played a part its inadequacy was con-
fessed by its combination with other religions in the effort to eke out
an answer to the religious needs of the people, which were not fully met
in any of the faiths. Confucianism had based itself on the assumption
that human nature is good and needs only to be enlightened. It had made
trial, on the most extensive scale, of human culture under the inspiration
of a powerful social ideal. The outcome was the most numerous nation
on earth with ninety-five percent of its people illiterate and the nation
helpless in the face of the impacts of progress. Within Christendom the
Renaissance movement turned many to natural religion in reaction against
the dominant Christianity, which did not satisfy the new knowledge and
antagonized its progress. This turn produced the Age of Reason, with
the dearth of Illuminism, just as a similar sceptical movement had pro-
duced similar results in the days of the decadence of Greece and Rome.
Whether one looked upon the awakened and progressive world outside the
Church, or upon conditions within the Church, it was increasingly evident
that the times were ripe for a Gospel. The message of the formalized
Church did not challenge the world eager for a new life. /

For those who had eyes to see, and who turned their attention to the
religious facts of the world, it was clear that man is unable to hold and
develop revealed religion except when and as he recognizes the immediate
presence and power of God operating in his life, maintaining his religion

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 117

and adjusting it to the growing life which the divine presence produces
in human experience. The Jews had relied upon transcendent monotheism.
The answer was found in a nation destroyed for accumulating centuries
and a people scattered among the nations. They were a people with a
great expectation, but without any sense of power operating within them-
selves to achieve their goal or to realize the ideals of their religion.
Mohammedanism had wrought with a narrow interpretation of an unap-
proachable God. It had been able to produce a certain degree of culture and
to attract to its following men who had known nothing better than animisms
and idolatries. It had built up a great empire and had elevated all the
people who accepted its doctrines and its way of life. By the thirteenth
century it had reached the climax of its progress and came into a perma-
nent stage of arrested development beyond which it has manifested no
capacity to reach. In all fairness, it must be said that the best the Religion
of the Prophet had been able to do left men still under cruel despotism,
ethical incompetency, stagnant civilization and religious fanaticism. The
Roman Catholic Church had substituted an authoritative ecclesiastical
system for a present, living Christ, and had removed the Holy Spirit
from vital control within the Christian body. The result was tradition-
alism, dogmatism, formalism which were helpless for deliverance from
the inertia of "The Dark Ages." Indeed, the Church was so bound with
its own chains as to make it a hindrance to the forces, not its own, which
would deliver men from the evils and superstitions of the age. Greek
Catholicism had so far identified itself with military despotism in ruling
over a mass of superstitious ignorance as to deprive it both of the capacity
for inward renewal and of the impulse to expansion. The Eastern sec-
tarian churches had so long suffered repression by dominating political
powers affiliated with non-Christian religions that they had lost vision,
hope and the sense of divine calling.

"The times of this ignorance God overlooked,'* while men sought out
many inventions and proved their own helplessness apart from the energy
of the living God. Meantime He was preparing a new gospel age wherein
"he now commandetk men that they shall all everywhere repent in view
of the righteous judgment" of Jesus Christ, Who was also bringing a
pure Gospel again from the grave of rationalism and formalism to be the
power of God unto salvation for all the world.

The extensive missions of the Roman Catholic Church in this period
had in some measure acquainted the non-Christian world with the fact
of Christianity and with some of its outstanding facts. Protestant mis-
sions had in their measure carried on this same preparation. Various
parts of the world were getting to know of the other parts and were
realizing that human nature and its needs are at least similar the world
around. Commercial intercourse tended to break down the barriers be-
tween races and tribes. Later, to be sure, as the more backward nations
became conscious of their rights and of their potential position, racial
barriers would be reconstructed, and out of even stronger material. A
new movement to remove these barriers would become necessary. By
the eighteenth century the heathen poples were beginning to recognize

n8 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

that some things of importance could be had from others. There were
the beginnings of fraternal interchange of ideas as well as of material
goods. Here again a later century would develop movements of re-
sistance, and a better understanding of the relations between men would
have to prepare the way for a larger exchange of values between the different
races of the one human race. The world was at least prepared for extensive
beginnings of a Christian missionary movement which might come to envis-
age for itself a goal nothing short of " making the world Christian."

II. PREPARATION 0? THS CHURCH

It would be unfair to judge Protestantism in its earlier stages by the
standards which it developed for itself in later centuries. We have seen
something of the general European conditions in which it arose and which
of necessity conditioned its progress. These conditions were determina-
tive against the churches gaining any world view, or feeling any passion
for universal expansion, or being driven by any pressing conviction of
race-wide obligation. The new-born movement must first grow into self-
consciousness and have time for self-adjustment. There is a close analogy
in the history of social movements and individual life forms. A period
of self-realization must come first. Functioning in relationships to others
can only follow later. What is the sad fact In movements and individuals
is that the period and process of self-realization is apt to be unduly pro-
longed and to become a habit of character. Thereby the meaning of life
is lost for movement or for individual man. One must first get to know
himself as a fact. But unless this shall lead on to dedication of oneself
as a factor in society, then the reason for his existence is largely if not
wholly defeated and lost. So of movements. Protestantism could become
a powerful factor in world changes only when it had won its place, in
its own consciousness and in the recognition of other social organisms,
as a definite and legitimate fact in the order of life in the world. It
grew into its obligations, at first unconsciously, as is natural; and then
by tentative efforts and enlarging experiences of success and of failure.
With progressive awakening came also progressive effort to meet the
responsibilities, only the progress was painfully slow and was too much
resisted. It is true of movements, as of men, that the assertion of imma-
ture selfhood not only hinders the truest self-expression, but delays the
maturing of the self, the achieving of true selfhood. The first and long the
pressing need of the Protestant movement was whining its right to exist.
It had to gain its spiritual, ecclesiastical and political freedom from
the Roman Church and its influences, a freedom still "far from complete,
possibly not to be completed save in that larger freedom of the religious
soul and life from all forms, as such, that hinder the full expression of
the meaning of religion. But the problem of freedom was at first very
real, and very urgent. And the sense of freedom was a condition of feeling
and accepting world-wide responsibility. The new movement, and the
new churches in which it took form, must first of all discover, then acquire,
then in some measure realize the functions and organs of the spiritual
life which was taking form in them.

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA no;

Protestantism could have no message for mankind until it had determined
what its own faith might be. For the movement began under the impulse of
basal principles and with no defined creeds. Creeds it did develop, top many
and too elaborate and too dogmatic and, so, too divisive. Yet a period largely
devoted to definition of the faith of the Reformation was inevitable. This
definition was wrought out through a long period of discussion, controversy
and polemics. The best that was gained by the process was a series of forms
of life and doctrine and worship that came, in time, to recognize and respect
each other as parts of the same life and movement, but each still to insist
that all others were immature expressions of a life that must come to
fullness in the specific forms which it had found. It must remain for a
later age to reinterpret the situation and the history on another principle.
The point here is that this age of finding itself through controversy was
both unfavourable to any missionary activity, and was antagonistic to
any. such idea when it was suggested. And some definition of the main
experiences and beliefs of religion is absolutely required to constitute a
Gospel for others.

tf INDIRECT PREPARATION

In the plan of the Christ, the individual is the unit in salvation and in
service. That is the very genius of Christianity. The individual had
largely been submerged and lost in the hierarchical system of Rome, just
as the individual had. never come into definite consciousness in the feudal
economic organization of Europe and in the social conceptions of the
Middle Ages. The Reformation marks the rediscovery of the individual.
That is its chief characteristic. Only we have to remind ourselves that
the rediscovery of the individual in the historic process is for each man
an initial discovery, and sets before him the task of his entire making
as a unit in life and in the social organization of life. When discov-
ered, the individual has to be awakened, emancipated, educated, socialized.
Only as this complicated process goes on can he be stirred to project
himself into the world as a factor for fulfilling its life. Missions is-
peculiarly an individualistic enterprise; must be so in the very nature
of the case. All pioneer work must be individualistic, whether one thinks
in terms of physical frontiers to be pushed back, or thought and life
extensions to be adventured. It was a long and complicated process to
get this individual awake and going, even sufficiently to begin revolutions
in the social, economic, political and religious life of men. And these
revolutions had in great measure to move together. The English Bill
of Rights, the American Declaration of Independence, the French Revo-
lution are only the more exalted markers that line the whole path of
progress toward a new order of world life. New signal lights of this
urge of the divine right of man, and of each individual man, are being
erected in our own generation, in China, in India, and it may be even in
the lands that first erected the older standards and then failed to follow
their direction.

In this period we are in the midst of a new reverence for individual
personality, a new assertion of individualism. This new individualism

120 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

comes forward in the face of opposing mass life and meets such repressive
and established habit of domination that it is a struggle both bitter, and
difficult for those in the midst of it to understand.

The sense of brotherhood cannot precede individualism, but it must
follow it in the measure that the individual gains his freedom and inter-
prets its meaning. We witness, therefore, in this period the rise of this
sense of brotherhood following on the heels of the growing rights of man.
The first Protestant orphanage was instituted by Francke at Halle, in
1698. John Howard was the voice of the movement for Prison Reform
in the eighteenth century, and just behind him and his growing following
came Clarkson and Wilberforce with a crusade against slavery, that would
grow in volume and conviction until slavery had been abolished within
Christendom and was on the way to abolition throughout the world. The
human movement expressed itself again in the Sunday Schools that began
under Fox, Raikes and others. This was not, of course, to begin with a
religious education scheme at all, but was purely in the interest of destitute
and neglected children. The whole movement toward democracy and the
rights of man, as advocated in England by Pitt and Burke, was an expres-
sion of the growing sense of human worth with its positive grounding in
the sense of brotherhood.

The most unselfish and perfect form of humanitarianism was the mis-
sionary movement which arose along with these other expressions of
humanitarian interest and obligation. It came at the end of the eighteenth
century to definite organization on a distinctively Christian basis, sup-
ported by the divine imperative of "the Great Commission" of the Christ.
The restoration of the Christian Scriptures to the laity, and to men in
general, with the privilege of reading them and with the right of private
interpretation, all enforced by the duty of direct contact with God as the
source of religion, brought men face to face with the missionary programme
and commissions of Jesus, and with the missionary activities of the early
Christians. By degrees this reading of the Bible linked up with the in-
fluences that were gradually widening the horizon for thinking Christians,
and raised the question of the duty of resuming the work of propagating
the faith and extending it to all the world for the salvation of all men.
This interpretation of religion and duty moved slowly in the minds of
men, preoccupied, as we have seen, with the demands for meeting immedi-
ate and pressing problems of a new form of their religion that was strug-
gling with its own self-interpretation and with defense of its right to be.
But in the end the word of the Scriptures became determinative with the
consciences of Christians.

Still, by the time Protestantism has won its independence and its posi-
tion as a fact in the life of Europe and America, that formalizing and
rationalizing influence, always insidiously working in any spiritual move-
ment, and against which in the Roman Church the Reformation protest
arose, had seriously affected the new movement. Spiritual religion, sus-
tained in direct and living experience, and not in traditional inheritance-
and institutional formalism, is alone sufficient for a movement that goes
out to save and win in new territory. We have seen that there was an

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 121

extensive work in connection with political and commercial expansion, but
that it was always lacking in sustained support and in conquering power.
In every political state of E)urope the unholy union of Church and State
continued as the operatirig principle in Protestantism, as it had been a
convinced method of the Roman Catholic expansion in Europe. Similarly
Protestantism found itself still, for the most part, holding on to the idea
and the dogma of ceremonial regeneration, to a certain sacramentarian
belief that hindered the freedom of the spiritual principle. Thus it was
that by the time Protestantism should have been ready to see and assume
the duty of evangelizing the heathen there was an inhibiting deadness
within most of the churches.

Missions can grow only. in the soil of a spiritual religion, unless they
have been made a recognized function of a formal religious system, and
this had not been the case with Protestantism. Hence we have to recog-
nize as another line of indirect preparation of the Protestant churches
for their missions the rise of various Pietistic and evangelistic movements
within the churches. Pietism is a recognized factor in the history of
religion in Protestant Europe, and it was out of the Pietistic centres that
the new missionary life arose in many instances, and from the Pietists
came many of the first missionaries. This was the case, even for the
colonial and commercial missions. The re-establishment of the Moravian
BrptherhjQOji, under the patronage of Zinzendorf, was a major influence
in the rise of modern, missions. Similarly the Methodist movement broke
up the ground and prepared the way for the growing of a new expression
of living Christianity. There were widespread revivals in England, es-
pecially in the west of England, and in America in the first half of the
eighteenth century, and again a mighty revival movement just at the time
when independent missionary organization began. These revivals and the
missionary movement were a divine answer to the rationalism of the sev-
enteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Formal orthodoxy was in both
centuries either surrendering to rationalism or waging a losing polemic
against it, when revival and saving interest in those who had not known
the Christ in His Gospel came in to give unanswerable evidence of the
presence and power of God, and to give to God in the Gospel of His Son
an interpretation of Himself which made Him the God that men cannot
deny, but the need of Whom they must confess. Only the God of all men,
Who is the God of Christian missions, can compel recognition at the hands
of men in an age of wide thought and progress.

LINES OF DIRECT PREPARATION

With this rapid glance at certain lines by which the Church was indi-
rectly undergoing preparation for an era of evangelical missions, we must
turn to think of other lines of preparation which were direct and which
consciously advanced the education and the purpose of the churches for
this undertaking.

All the missionary work that was carried on in this period was in sev-
eral ways moving toward the more definite and distinctively Christian
undertakings. They served to bring the condition and need of the heathen

122 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

to the attention of Christendom; they demonstrated by their successes the
divine approval on such work; they reacted on the spiritual life of Chris-
tendom for its deepening and vitalizing 1 ; they definitely cultivated the
spirit of missions by which active efforts would be produced. The polit-
ical and commercial missions in various directions showed the impor-
tance of this work and at the same time showed how unfit these secular
forces were for a work that must be spiritual to achieve truly worthy
results. Just when rationalism and secularism were undermining the
support of these missionary efforts, the Church was coming into posi-
tion to save them from surrender and abandonment by taking over the
responsibility.

PRAYER ;

One of the first, and always one of the most normal and educative
Christian reactions in the combinations of influences at work was prayer
in behalf of the world's evangelization in general and of missions in par-
ticular. A volume could be written recording the place and power of
prayer in the rise and development of the modern missionary movement.
Several volumes have been written dealing with this subject, although
none dealing with the specific period before us. Mrs. Montgomery has
stated both fact and philosophy in saying that "prayer as a matter of
fact has preceded every great missionary advance." This is true of the
origin of missions in the life and teaching of Jesus. He met all the crises
in His life in prayer, and made prayer central in His reliance on His
followers for continuing the enterprise which He began. Every strategic
advance and development recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was born
of prayer. Paul was passionate in pleading for the prayers of "the
saints" in behalf of him in his setting of the missionary strategy of the
Christian movement, and he placed his hope of success in their "toiling
together with him in their prayers in his behalf." In like manner the
modern movement was born and nurtured in hearts and homes of prayer,
in conferences, concerts and councils where the first business and the
unfailing method was entrance into the mind of the Holy Spirit through
prayer, and entrance upon the work of missions through inspiration and
guidance that came in the experiences of prayer.

We have seen that the Moravians and the Methodists and the Pietists
had very much to do with the origin and early advance of this missionary
work. Prayer was the soul of these movements. Halle, from which the
first missionaries came for the Danish missions, was a prayer centre for
the culture of spiritual religion, then for the care of orphans and for
distinctly Christian education. It naturally became the first centre of
active missionary propaganda. The decisive action that led the Moravians
to begin missionary work was taken at a prayer-meeting, and the first
two volunteers met in the morning after each in a night of prayer, and
all unknown to the other, had been led to dedicate himself for this work
on condition that God would find him a fellow for the work.

Robert Millar, of Paisley, Scotland, published in 1723 a History of the
Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of Paganism, which was

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 123

intended as an appeal for the continuance of that propagation and over-
throw. He urged prayer as "the first of nine means for the conversion
of the heathen world." Out of the great revivals in England .came, in
1744, a " concert to promote more abundant application ... to prayer that
our God's Kingdom may come." This concert was to continue for two
years. It greatly spread through Great Britain, and the next year a
memorial was sent to America, inviting all Christians to unite in a covenant
for such prayer "for the next seven years." Jonathan Edwards wrote the
call for American Christians to unite in "extraordinary prayer for the
revival of religion and the advancement of Christ's Kingdom upon earth."
With the new revival in England, toward the end of the century, Edwards'
pamphlet was reprinted and led to a motion by John Sutcliff, one of the
Baptist ministers, who was associated with Carey in advocating organiza-
tion for missionary work, for a call to prayer for revival. John Ryland,
Jr., another of Carey's supporters, wrote the call, inviting all Baptists and
all other societies of all denominations to unite with them. They were
to engage " heartily and per sever ingly " in prayer on the first Monday of
each month at the same hour. Among other items the call urges: "Let
the whole cause of the Redeemer be affectionately remembered, and the
spread of the Gospel to the most distant parts of the habitable globe, be
the object of your most fervent requests" 1

A monument marks the spot in Massachusetts where stood the hay-stack
under which five students of Williams College took refuge from a rain,
and there pledged themselves to the inauguration of a movement for the
evangelization of the heathen " in their own persons." They had already
been praying together about this matter, which had been laid on their
hearts. Now they knelt together in prayer and formally committed them-
selves to this undertaking. Back of this meeting lies the history of its
leader, Samuel John Mills, Jr., who is justly called the Father of Foreign
Missionary Organization in America. He was born in the same year that
William Carey became a pastor, 1784, in the home of a missionary min-
ister, who was also editor of the first missionary magazine to be published
in America. The mother prayed for two years that God would give her a
son who should be a foreign missionary. This was eight years before the
first society for missions was formed in England and twenty-six years
before the first in the United States.

The place of prayer in the call of J. Hudson Taylor and in the experi-
ences through which he came to found and direct the China Inland Mis-
sion are at least partly known to all students of missions. With some
mistaken notions and with some lack of understanding of the motives and
methods which they applied, this mission has had much to do with the
advance of the case of missions in modern times, and most of all through
its emphasis on direct contact with God through prayer. The Student
Volunteer Movement, through which so many thousands have gone from
the colleges and universities into the service of all the agencies of for-
eign missions, was born in the prayer experiences of Robert P. and
Grace Wilder, and other students who were enlisted with them in their
prayers for guidance. The movement actually came into being in a con-

124 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

secration service at Northfield, and in an hour when the volunteering
students were on their knees in an epochal experience. Truly, in mod-
ern times as in all times, the missionary cause has "advanced upon the
knees" of men and women who thus came into fellowship with the Spirit
of Jesus.

AGGRESSIVE ADVOCACY

Warneck has given a most thrilling story of the men who, in Germany,
advocated and contended for the duty of missions and brought about its
acceptance by the churches as a duty. He has made impossible any intel-
ligent claim that the early Reformers were missionary in vision or spirit.
Among those who took some interest in missions as the subject came to be
considered, he finds three classes. There were some who saw that this
was a Christian duty, but held that it rested only on the rulers, and that
it must wait for their leadership. Such Christians were imbued with the
error of the dependence of the Church on the state, and were unable to
think creatively. Next were those who saw the duty to be a direct Chris-
tian obligation, but held that the times were such as afforded no oppor-
tunity and so did not call for present action. Others there were who saw
the duty as absolute, immediate and imperative, and urged its acceptance.
It was these last who produced a campaign that developed controversy and
promoted the education of enough Christians in the duty of missions to
bring about the definite undertaking. Yet it was a long, slow and often
bitter struggle before the day was won.

Some grounds of opposition sound curious today, while others are still
used by selfish and unwilling souls. The duty of propaganda was said
by some to be that of apostles alone. They held that the apostles had no
successors, and so the duty and even the right terminated with them.
Thereafter every nation was to develop what it had got, or was to seek
what it might need. The Gospel had been preached in all the world once,
and that was the only opportunity that ought to be given. The present
condition of the heathen world was their punishment for failing to con-
tinue in the truth. The apostolic missionary work was accompanied and
promoted by miracle-working power, which the Holy Spirit no longer
gives and, therefore, He does not expect Christians to engage in this work.
It was the business of the Church to " gather the elect out of Babylon (the
Roman Church) " as speedily as possible, in view of the imminent return
of the Lord. There would not be time to go to the heathen, and we must
be content to evangelize such of them as may come into Christian lands.
If God has any elect in heathen lands He will find ways of reaching them,
as indeed He was doing through travellers and by other means. There
was too much to do at home, and too many there were still heathen to
permit seeking elsewhere for men to save. The enterprise was said to be
impracticable because of the ignorance, degradation and antagonism of the
heathen; because of the lack of facilities for reaching them; because of
the dissipation and demoralization of the Christian forces that would result*
in sending men abroad who were needed at home. This line of argument
was in contradiction of another, which nevertheless was employed : We are

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 125

tinder no obligation to give the message to the heathen, for besides natural
religion, wherein God speaks to all men, all have at some time had contact
with revelation. In any case, it was said, and truly for a long while, that
none of the theologians was in favour of such an undertaking. For the first
urgent advocates were laymen. The theologians were occupied with press-
ing problems in the growing Protestant movement.

Erasmus is the first of the Reformers to give attention to the subject
of missions. His Art of Preaching was published in 1536. It contains a
vigorous statement as to the duty of foreign mission work, points out the
wide field calling for this, gives some strong arguments for it, meets theo-
retical objections, and exhorts to the undertaking. Erasmus lacked moral
earnestness and the gifts of leadership; no one else was interested, and his
advocacy produced no results. It was less than twenty years since Luther
sounded the call for revolt, and all capable of leadership were preoccupied
with pressing questions right at hand.

Adrianus Saravia came later in that century, and made more stir with
his call. He was pastor in Antwerp and Brussels, and fled to England to
escape the furious onslaughts of the zealous and heartless Duke of Alva.
He was professor in Leyden five years, but spent his last twenty-five years
in England, where he died as Dean of Westminster, in 1613. In 1590 he
published a treatise on Orders of the Ministry as Instituted *by the Lord.
His primary purpose in this study was obviously ecclesiastical, but he was
open-eyed enough to see that the Lord gave large place to missionaries,
and he could not wholly omit this " order." He had a chapter in which he
set forth the binding obligation of the Church to the command of the Lord
to preach the Gospel to all nations. He presented four orderly arguments
for his claim, said that as there is the obligation, so also there is the power ;
and that if the work is not done, it is for lack of apostolic men and of
living missionary zeal. Beza replied to him, and called forth a further
defence of his idea and advocacy of missionary work by Saravia. About
the time of his death, there appeared another effort to refute his position,
this time by John Gerhard.

The matter was now growing warm. Count Erhardt Truchsess, of
Wetzhausen, formally laid before the Theological Faculty of Wittenberg a
"scruple." He would know "how East and South and West shall be
converted to the only saving faith, since no one of the Augsburg Con-
fession was going to preach in obedience to the commission." This was
putting the matter squarely up to the fountain-head of the Lutheran Church,
and the Count could not be ignored. The reply of the faculty is serious, but
does no credit to them in their use of either logic, Scriptures or common
sense. They cited Matthew 16:20; Romans 10:18; Psalm 19:4; Colossians
1 123 as proving that the command, which they declared to be "personate
priviligium" of the apostles, had been fulfilled long ago. They argued
that if it were not to be so understood, then the command would be upon
every preacher, and that every one would have to go into all the world;
besides the obvious absurdity of this notion, they found that Acts 14:23;
20:18; I Peter 5:1 and Titus 1:5 made it the duty of every preacher to
remain in his own church. That "no one is to be excused before God

126 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

because of ignorance," they found abundantly made clear in the first two
chapters of Romans and in Acts 13:46; 17:27; 18:6. How little they
understood the compassion of the Saviour is shown by the turn they took
in the face of their own proof that the untaught millions were under judg-
ment. So long as these had "no excuse" for their condition, these good
men were content. God was clear, and that was all that mattered. They
argued that it was the duty of the political "guardians and nurses of the
Church" to bring the heathen in, "jure belli" or by "other lawful
means" (!).

We have noted, in considering the Dutch Colonial Missions, how Justus
Heurnius with great ability advocated missions in Holland. In 1618 he
addressed to the General States and Prince Maurice De Lagatione Bvaft-
gelica ad Indos Capessenda Admonitio f which Barnes accounts a "vig-
orous book," urging earnest efforts to evangelize the heathen. The
statesman and theologian, Hugo Grotius, not only gave his personal and
official support to the work in the East Indies, but wrote a work on
the Truth of the Christian Religion (De Veritate Religionis Chris-
tiana) which was translated into Malay and Arabic for use in the mis-
sionary work.

Most powerful of all the advocates of missions in this era was the
Austrian Baron Justinian von Weltz, 16211670. He pressed the battle
irresistibly and would give the authorities no peace. He urged revival
at home, seeing most clearly that between "living Christianity" and mis-
sions there was "innermost connection." He manifests an amazing in-
sight into the principles and methods which should guide in such an
undertaking, his outlines being in detailed accord with what came to be
adopted nearly a century and a half later. He began with publishing,
in 1655, A Brief Account as to How a New Society Might Be Formed
Among Believing Christians of the Augsburg Confession. This probably
had reference to the Society of Jesus ("Jesuits"), which was so notably
serving the foreign missionary work of the Roman Church, a reference
which was particularly offensive to Protestants. The phrase "Believing
Christians" in his title would mollify his readers somewhat in its impli-
cation that Catholics were not believing Christians, but it might equally
suggest that there were unbelievers among the Protestant membership.
Most notable is his insight that the missionary cause and work would
have to depend on individual interest and action. His private efforts
convinced some of the theologians of the soundness of his contention, but
produced no effective response. He followed this with three other strong
treatises.

(I) "A Christian and Loyal Exhortation, ~Btc." addressed to all evan-
gelical rulers, barons and nobles; doctors, professors and preachers; stu-
dents of theology, students of medicine and law; merchants, and all that
love Jesus.

(II) An outline of a method for entering upon and carrying on the
work. His proposal was for a society to charge itself with both home and
foreign missions. It was to be made up of "promotores, conservatores et
mlssionarii" contributors, administrators and missionaries, the missionaries

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 127

to be trained for their work in a "collegium de propaganda fide." It had
been but a few years since Urban VII. had established the Collegium in
Rome, which doubtless influenced the thinking of von Weltz. He was
thinking of thorough work in Christianizing the natives, and had in mind
expressly the colonial areas of Dutch, Swedes and Danes as spheres already
accessible and demanding occupation.

(Ill) A Repeated Loyal and Earnest Reminder and Admonition to Un-
dertake the Conversion of Unbelieving Nations; to All Evangelical Rulers,
Clergymen and Jesus-loving Hearts, etc. As reasons for this work he sets
forth the will of God; the example of godly men in the history of Chris-
tianity; the petitions in the liturgy; the example of the Papists. This last
was a bitter thrust for the Protestants. It was a standing argument of
the Romanists that the Protestants could be no true Church of Jesus
Christ nor genuine believers, because they were not interested in the
heathen, nor in the extension of the Kingdom of God. Von Weltz was
the first to confess the justice of the argument. He told his people that
the " Papists " were right in applying this test, and that the only legitimate
answer to it was action. Unless they did take interest in the lost of all
the world and did seek to extend the Kingdom of their Lord, they had
no right to take His name. He plied the people with the Scriptures,
pointed out the absurdity and hypocrisy of using the Lord's Prayer and
other forms of praying for the extension of the Kingdom, while no hand
is put to the task of promoting it. He refutes the leading objections to
the missionary undertaking and powerfully lashes an indifferent and un-
worthy Church. At length he disposed of his fortune in a way to promote
the cause for which he was pleading, and went to Dutch Guiana to lose
his life in the jungles and the heat, where he went to seek and save the
ignorant and primitive natives. The Corpus Evangelicorum, through
Ursinius, gave an official ecclesiastical reply to the urging of von Weltz.
It was a lengthy discussion indignantly rejecting his proposals as vision-
ary, self-conceited, blasphemous, deceiving the people, akin in spirit to
Meunzer and the Quakers. It warned against the proposed Society of
Jesus, closing with the cry: "Preserve us from it, dear Lord God! "

It will be instructive and stimulating to read the peroration of von
Weltz' appeal:

" I set you before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, Who, righteous Judge
that. He is, heeds not though ye be called high and honoured court preachers,
venerable superintendents, learned professors; before this strict tribunal ye
shall give me answer to these questions of conscience. I ask, who gave you
authority to misinterpret the commandment of Christ in Matthew xxviii ? I
ask, is it right that you annul the apostolic office which Christ instituted, and
without which the body of Christ is incomplete, I Corinthians xii ; Ephesians
iv? I ask you, from Matthew v, why do you not show yourselves as lights
of the world, and do not let your light shine that Turks and heathens may
see your good works, and also that young students may appear as lights of
the world? I ask you, from I Peter ii, 12, if ye are following and are
exhorting other young people to follow the commandment of Peter, that
you should have a seemly behaviour among the Gentiles, that they may see

128 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

your good works and glorify God? I ask you, from I Thessalonians i, 8, if
ye have brought it about that the Word of God has sounded farther than in
Germany and Sweden and Denmark, as Paul so highly commends his Thes-
salonians that their faith toward God is gone forth from them into all places ?
I ask, are you prepared to answer for it that you have taken counsel neither
with your princes nor with your congregations, nor even been willing to
take counsel, as to how the Gospel shall be preached to unbelievers, as did
the early Church, so setting you a fine example ? I ask you clergy if ye are
not dealing contrary to conscience when ye pray publicly in the congregation
that the holy name of God may become ever more widely known and
acknowledged by other nations, while yet ye yourselves do not your part
towards this end ? Tell me, ye who are learned, if the Papists do you wrong
when they charge you with doing no works of Christian love, since ye seek
not to convert the heathen? Say, in face of the impartial verdict of God,
ye scholars, who let yourselves be also called spiritual, is it right in no way
to have put a matter to the proof and yet to say it is not practicable ? Where-
fore do ye persuade princes and lords that the conversion of the heathen is
not practicable in this age, while you have neither yet tried it nor suffered
it to be tried in any land ? Say, ye hypocrites, where do ye find in the Bible
the word ' impracticable ' ? Did the disciples and apostles, when Christ sent
them forth, answer Him thus, 'Master, this work is not practicable in this
age ' ? Had not the disciples to preach even to those who were not willing
to receive them ? Oh, what a changed world ! Woe to you clergy who act
contrary to the Word of God, and to your own conscience ! Woe to you, and
yet again woe, that ye are not willing to help at all that the Kingdom of
God may be spread abroad in the world ! I wish not to condemn you, but I
thus earnestly entreat you that in the future ye do more for the work of
converting unbelieving nations than ye have done hitherto. . . . Ye clergy,
if from pride, conceit of wisdom, contempt of all earnest counsel, ye will
show no compassion towards the heathen, if, I say, you are not disposed be-
cause of your voluptuous life to help the advance of the Kingdom of Christ,
and to repent, then upon you and your children and your children's children
will fall all the curses which are written in the logth Psalm."

In Holland there were other advocates besides Heurnius and Grotius,
such as Dankaerts, Teelinck and Udemann in the first half; and Horn-
beck and Lodenstein in the latter half of the seventeenth century. In
Denmark there was little occasion for controversy over the idea. The
connection of Church and State was very close, and the decline of Danish
colonization reduced the demand for missionaries in the colonies, and the
Danish vision did not much expand beyond Danish possessions until the
nineteenth century.

England and America were not greatly stirred with missionary con-
cern until later, and there are few clear calls to world responsibility until
the latter half of the eighteenth century. We must not forget Roger
Williams, David Brainerd and some others. Yet the colonies could more
than absorb all the interest and energy of evangelization upon the colonists
and the Indians. It is not surprising that for the most part they lacked
world-vision.

Cromwell fell under the influence of the early outreachings of Prot-
estantism. It was his Long Parliament that founded the corporation for

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 129

the Propagation of the Gospel in [EJew England and directed the raising
of sixty thousand dollars for it. In organizing the Jamaica Expedition
he provided seven chaplains whose instructions were drawn up by John
Milton. When general evangelization of the heathen was being agitated
he proposed an ambitious scheme. He would divide the whole earth into
four missionary provinces, for one of which each of the four Protestant
nations would become responsible, Germany, Denmark, Holland, England.
Thus the aim would be to bring all into the Protestant faith. His plan
would preserve unity and co-operation. A central congregatio de propa-
ganda fide f after the manner of Pope Gregory a quarter of a century
earlier, was to promote and superintend the working of the scheme. There
would be seven directors and four secretaries paid from the state treas-
uries. Cromwell came to the end of his career without any action on his
impracticable 'proposal. Two English ministers, both ejected from their
" livings " by the Act of Conformity, Joseph Alleine and John Oxenbridge,
actively urged the duty of missions. Edward Hyde (Lord Clarendon)
" superintended the translation of the Gospels and Acts into Malayese " and
proposed using Christ Church College, Oxford, for training missionaries.
George Fox, on the testimony of Robson, "had a clear perception of the
missionary duty of Christians, which not only inspired some of his im-
mediate followers to noble, if isolated, endeavours, but through William
Perm and otherwise contributed to a true understanding of the duty of
Christians toward the heathen." The Quakers actually sent three mis-
sionaries for China, but they failed to reach the country. Humphrey
Prideaux addressed an appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury (1695),
pressing the responsibility of England for the heathen in the possessions
which were being acquired in the East Indies.

By the turn into the eighteenth century we have come upon extensive
thought and discussion which awakened the sense of responsibility for
accepting the ever widening opportunity of Protestants. Spener, preach-
ing from the text, "They . . . went forth and preached everywhere,"
strongly lays on Christians the direct duty of evangelizing the heathen,
and suggests that the neglected unbelievers will in the day of judgment
"cry for vengeance upon Christians who have been so utterly without
care for their salvation," for he insisted: "The obligation rests on the
whole Church to have care as to how the Gospel shall be preached to the
whole world," without limit of labour or cost. Schriver, in Seelenschatz,
shows how nineteen-thirtieths of the race are heathen, six-thirtieths Mo-
hammedan, and only five-thirtieths Christian. On the basis of the con-
dition and need he appeals for the honour of Christianity that it be
extended. At least urgent prayer could be made to such end. In a passage
of great eloquence and passionate earnestness he arraigns the materialism
and worldliness of a Christianity whose adherents can go into all parts of
the world on every mission save that of redemption.

It is not customary to think of the scientist-philosopher Leibnitz in
connection with missions. Yet he was deeply interested in all parts of
the world and sought to extend knowledge to all the world. In all this
his soul gave a religious turn to his thought. When the Berlin Academy

130 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

of Sciences (The Royal Society of Prussia) was founded under his in-
fluence, in 1700, he saw to it that the charter provided that one of the
objects of the organization should be to "charge itself with the propa-
gation of the true faith and Christian virtue." He was greatly inter-
ested in a group of Jesuit missionaries whom he met as they were going
to China. He learned all he could from them, and arranged for corre-
spondence with them. He edited a collection of their letters with an
introduction, giving suggestions for establishing Lutheran missions in
China and committing himself to the backing of such work. Francke, at
Halle, was aroused by this, and corresponded with Leibnitz. Thus Francke
was prepared for his part in the Danish-Halle Mission in 1705-6. Then
Francke became editor of what was at first an annual report of the Danish-
Halle work in India and became, as the first magazine of missions, a
distinct educational factor in this cause. He called his reports a History
of Evangelical Missions in the Bast for the Conversion of the Heathen.
Sermons and addresses by the Wesleys, Whitfield, and later Thomas
Coke, and by Zinzendorf and others were widely circulated, for that
day, and formed part of a growing tract literature in the advocacy of
missions. Some noble contributions to this form of propaganda were made
by English representatives of the British East India Company, such as Grant
and Chambers, and by the devout and able Danish Governor, George Udney.

The Pietists, Methodists and other revivalists did great service to the
movement for missions by their hymns. When the people get to singing
an idea, it works toward action. We find such hymns in both Germany
and England in growing number. From the eighteenth century we get
"Wach auf du Geist der Ersten Zengen" (Awake thou Spirit of the
Early Martyrs), by Bogatzky (1710); "O Konig Aller Ehren" (O King
of all Nations) by the great mystic Boehme, and a number of others. In
English are metrical translations of the missionary psalms and prophecies
of the Old Testament. Among these are, "Jesus Shall Reign," Psalm 72
(1719); "Behold the Mountain of the Lord;" "Sing to the Lord in
Joyful Strains;" several by Charles Wesley; "O'er the Gloomy Hills
of Darkness," by Williams, 1722; "Arm of the Lord, Awake," by Shrub-
sole, 1795.

But for the formalism and spiritual poverty in the churches, the mod-
ern Protestant missions would have gotten under way a century earlier
than they did. The spiritual groups who nurtured the ideal found their
energies all demanded for the pressing practical task in the home mission
service of awakening a sleeping Church and grappling with personal sin
and social corruptions.

SOME ORGANIZATIONS AND WORK

The growing missionary conviction and the forms of missionary work
actually undertaken which we have seen to be, after all, quite consid-
erable called for organization, which in tentative and experimental ways
prepared for the more appropriate and effective organization when once
the burden was fairly assumed. Several projects were undertaken in the
(continent of Europe looking toward Eastern missions, most of which

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 131

came to naught. Some colleges were instituted to train missionaries and
had brief lives of usefulness. "The Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in New England" was founded in 1649 because of the work of
John Eliot, and gave extensive support to that work until the end of that
century. . In 1701, a more extensive organization came into being, this
time backed by action of the Church of England Council, the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. While it had the
American Indians in mind as a secondary objective and later Negroes
and then natives in other dependencies, its primary objective for the
first hundred years of its history was providing clergy and religious min-
istrations for British colonists and residents in other lands, and com-
batting the growing independence of religion in the colonies, where the
non-conformist churches seemed to the orderly Episcopalians to be bringing
Christianity into disorder and shame.

The Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge was formed
in 1698 "to provide Christian literature and to promote Christian educa-
tion both at home and abroad." It continues to the present day, but has
never taken the sending of missionaries as its function. When the Danish
Mission in India was failing for lack of funds, this society became the
financial backer to continue the work. In 1709 a similar organization
with the same name was founded in Edinburgh, and became the supporter of
David Brainerd in his brief heroic work among the Delaware Indians. The
Moravian Brotherhood, after 1732, became in effect a missionary society.

Shortly before the opening of the modern period, and leading into it,
numerous local and regional organizations arose in America for missions
among frontiersmen and often including Indians in their aims. Among
Congregationalists and Baptists this work of following up the always
receding frontier was more and more assumed by the "associations" or
by groups who used the annual association meetings as their opportunity
for combining interest and support for this important work of preserving
the religious character of the new world populations. All this type of
work was cultivating the Christian mind for grasping the world in its
vision of duty.

III. OPENING THE WAY FOR THE CHURCH TO REACH THE WORI.D

World movements, hi the providence of God, were opening up avenues
of approach by the awakened Church to an aroused world. The nations,
in their ambitions and expansions, were making highways for God. This
is always an important factor in the expansion of Christianity. The
Church has sometimes been quite blind to its opportunities thus thrust
before it, and never quite prepared for full use of them. Looking through
the movements of the three centuries now under review, we see several
lines of such shaping of events so as to challenge Protestantism to enter
aggressively upon the call to go to the uttermost part of the earth in witness
to the Christ.

PROTESTANT COUNTRIES COME TO WORLD POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY

The transfer of the hegemony of the seas from Catholic to Protestant

132 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

nations shifted the burden of responsibility for non-Christian lands from
Catholic institutions to the evangelical bodies. Holland was the first of
the Reformation lands to take to the seas, beginning her merchant marine
in the sixteenth century and enlarging it in the seventeenth. In 1588
the British destroyed the Spanish Armada and proceeded to the most
remarkable career of world commerce the world has ever seen. Long the
foremost Protestant land, "Britannia has ruled the waves" for three and
a half centuries and has made the sea an asset for evangelical expansion
to the ends of the earth. Denmark never became so great a factor as the
Dutch or the British, yet took extensive part in the overseas carrying and
was more friendly to Gospel freightage than either of the others in the
earlier times.

The extension of discovery and exploration, followed by colonization,
by appropriation and by imperial inclusion, more and more brought Prot-
estant churches face to face with increasing millions of unevangelized
people. The field of immediate opportunity and pressing responsibility
was ever growing vaster. By 1600 the Catholic countries had reached
the climax of their remarkable career of world discovery and expansion.
The countries that adhered to the Protestant faith now pressed forward
in their career, equally daring and heroic and more expansive arid per-
manent. They prepared the way for the missionary in India and the
Pacific Islands, in North America, South Africa and subsequently in South
America, the rest of Asia and finally the whole of Africa. To be sure,
all this expansion had in it elements far from Christian how far we are
only now coming to realize. All along there was much of greed, ex-
ploitation, inhumanity, and always in the secular element there was far
more reaching after material gains than appreciation of human values.
Even so, the Christians had their opportunity and their call. These
expansions produced the evangelical missionary era. The world was
brought under Protestant rule and under evangelical leadership, more and
more Anglo-Saxon leadership. This made for progress and for Chris-
tianity. It ultimately forces upon Christendom the question of the right
of racial and cultural dominance, until expanding Christianity has to face
the problem of Christianizing its own motives, its own civilization, its
own institutions. But this newer problem could arise only under the
conditions produced by "the expansion of Christendom." In the first
centuries of that expansion the wider applications of the principles of
righteousness, justice and humanity were not much felt. It remained for
a world-wide Christianity to reveal them and to erect a judgment seat
before which its own followers must stand to answer for their sins of
pride, exploitation, aggression and robbery. This gets ahead of the story.
We return to the outreach of Protestant nations as opening arenas for the
heralds of the Gospel.

The Dutch began by making conquest of territories which the Portu-
guese had appropriated in the East, and went on to appropriate* new
territory on their own account. Here their period of aggression was
1596-1664. The British began by conquest and assimilation of Spanish
colonies from 1588 onward. Next they entered India, at first going to

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 133

parts as yet unoccupied by European powers, where they had a wide field,
from 1757. In 1759 they began robbing the French. In 1787 they picked
up Sierra Leone as the first step on a long career of territorial domination
in Africa, a career of magnitude not at all in mind or even imagined until
long afterwards. The Protestant Dutch had to give place for the expand-
ing empire from 1795 in South Africa, and in 1901 that phase was completed
Jn the incorporation of the two Boer republics.

The rise of the United States from 1776 introduced a new national
factor. Her territorial expansion, by means of migration across the con-
tinent, by purchase and by conquest made this nation an ever growing
agent of Protestant opportunity, almost coinciding with the modern mis-
sionary period.

Germany did not, of course, come into the field for empire building until
after the middle of the nineteenth century, but, once in, was a tremendously
important factor.

MATERIAL, RESOURCES AND fACIIjTlSS

Meantime the enormous development of material resources, with inven-
tions, discoveries and appliances that revolutionized the economic life of
the West and reintegrated the culture of the race, was rapidly unifying
the life of the world. International commerce was inevitably and in-
extricably interrelated with missions, each being both motive for and
product of the other. This world commerce was promoted especially by
the great trading monopolies ; and the attitude of these companies had very
definite influence on the missionary movement and work.

The British East India Company operated for more than two and a
half centuries, 1598-1858. It was responsible for British control in India
and for much of the expansion in other regions of the Far East, as also
for Great Britain's predominant influence in the politics of the East. Until
1778 the company had no occasion to fix any policy with reference to
missions, for they were not yet being pressed. Facing the question, the
policy was one of antagonism. Missionaries were not allowed passage
on the company's ships, and in some instances not permitted to reside in
territory controlled by it. And until 1813 British political administration
was closely associated with the company's operations and usually deter-
mined by the Company's will. The charter of the Company was period-
ically reviewed and revised by Parliament. When such a review was up
in .1813 the friends of missions, by a determined fight, succeeded in de-
priving the company of all authority in matters of religion. Officially, the
Company was compelled to encourage and protect the missions ; but actually
many of its agents and employees hindered. There were notable excep-
tions. Some lent encouragement and patronage, contributed funds and
openly favoured the cause. After the Rebellion, India was taken definitely
into the empire and Victoria proclaimed Empress, and with an explicit
declaration of the Christian basis of power and rule inserted in the procla-
mation by emphatic order of the Queen over the protest of her minister,
the able Disraeli. In all other sections, government functions were now
separated from the authority of the Company. A great step was taken to

134 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

free the work of missions from complications with trade, but after more
than a century this freedom is not complete.

The Dutch East India Company was distinctly friendly, but became in-
different and always some of its representatives discouraged the work.
The West India Company was mildly friendly. The numerous companies
exploiting America in the colonial period all nominally had a Christian and
missionary aspect and obligation, but did little to help, and their actual
relations with the aborigines in the main were anything but Christian
and winsome.

CREATING BASES Otf SUPPLY

The growth of empire, and the expansion of trade and influence, and
the accumulation of wealth in Christian lands constituted the erection of
great bases of supply of men and means for missions, and began the devel-
opment of a missionary statesmanship. All this preparation continues
with the ongoing of world movements. The British Empire was first in
importance until the World War. With all that may be said of the wrongs
of imperialism; and of the greed, the exploitations, the ruthless disregard
of human rights and the right of " self-determination of peoples," at times
involved in British expansion; whatever indictments may fairly be drawn
in specific cases of injustice and iniquity and they are not a few it
remains true that the British have taken and held no section of the world
that has not been elevated in economic and cultural welfare thereby. We
must take account of conditions and standards during the period of Euro-
pean expansion. We cannot disregard the fact that the basal forces of
history interrelate themselves, and the religious motive is not able either
to separate itself wholly from other motives or completely to master the
other motives with ideal control. Nor must we forget the thousand years
of arrest in development and of primitive unprogressiveness, on the past
of so large a part of the world's population. It is a law of life that a
people who for long periods fail to utilize their resources and to advance
in their civilization must give place to those who do make progress, or
must yield to the stimulation of leadership and enter the roads of progress
under the tutelage and control of others. The ills of imperialistic prog-
ress ought to be set in relation to the ills of stagnation where peoples are
left alone. When three hundred million Indian people, for example, can
be possessed and ruled by a nation of forty million, and with never many
more than one hundred thousand of the dominant people, on all errands
and all told, present at one time in the dominated country, it is clear that
somebody will take control in obedience to the laws of life and progress.
Nor, once more, are we to overlook that the age of imperialistic advance
has brought to consciousness the evils of imperialism and has aroused the
conscience of mankind to demand recognition of rights and values in
human life as supreme. And it is the Christian ideals and conscience that
have brought the awakening. Here is, at last, the supreme result of the
modern evangelical missionary movement this new sense of humanity
and this demand for righteousness in international dealings, this grow-
ing sense of the oneness of humanity and call for world citizenship, this

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL, ERA 135

sense of a divine imperative in the relations and objectives of men. Let
us try to picture the world without the advances produced by this
expansion impulse; or try to imagine expansion without any of the
influences of Christianity. The achievement of this age in missions is
the visualizing of a new world order and the opening of the way for achieve-
ment on a higher plane than humanity has ever before envisioned.

In the light of all the considerations, the British Empire for three hun-
dred years has been the greatest secular factor in the advance of the slowly
growing Kingdom of God. The future of that empire will depend upon
the attitude it takes toward these Kingdom values and the contribution it
makes to them; for at the heart of history-making and in the long run of
events Jehovah is ever "coming to judge the earth; He shall judge the
world in righteousness and the peoples with equity."

The same principles apply to all the empires and "powers." And this
term "power," as now universally applied in discussion of international rela-
tionships, is an index of the 'deeply vicious concept, which still controls in
world diplomacy. It is utterly unchristian. It must give way to another
way of thinking and directing in the affairs of the nations.

The second greatest missionary base was developed in the United States.
Since the World War it must take first place. In financial support and
in missionary personnel it now goes far ahead, as in all reason fit should.
By degrees the Christians in the United States must take over the greater
responsibility for missionary statesmanship. Germany never, after the
earlier stages of Protestant missions, provided men or money equal to
those of Great Britain and the United States. The War almost eliminated
her for the time being. Already German Christianity is beginning to
recover its share in the work. The progress and measure of its partici-
pation as in every other case will depend upon the inner spiritual devel-
opment. These major bases of supply for missions suggest how we should
think of all the Christian countries. Their highest function is in the work
of Christianizing the world.

OPENING DOORS

An engaging chapter of the history of providential preparation for mis-
sions might deal with the "opening of doors" to the lands to be evangel-
ized. This is part of the whole movement now under review. For a sum-
mary statement it may be well to classify the countries and groups by the
prevalent religions.

i. "Pagan lands." China was opened by the demands of commerce,
which brought on the Opium War 1838-40 which resulted in mission-
ary access in five "treaty ports," besides the ceded island of Hong Kong.
In general, further access was under the same influence of trade until
European imperialism complicated the situation further by political dip-
lomacy. Yet all along there were missionaries who held themselves and
their work separate from secular complications and pressed their message
in purely spiritual ways. Japan was opened peaceably by United States
diplomacy under the lead of Commodore Perry, who negotiated a trade
treaty, to be followed as a matter of course by similar relations of Japan

136 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

with other nations. This led to a new policy by the nation. Educators
for youth were invited from the United States. In 1868 a revolution re-
stored the Mikado to power and began the reconstruction of the social-
economic order from the feudal to the national system. Edicts against
Christianity were suspended in 1873. The constitution of 1889 provided
for entire religious freedom, which the Government has loyally maintained.
Korea was a pawn in the policies of China, Japan and Russia. Li Hung
Chang exerted his influence, and Dr. Allen, in behalf of the United States,
was able to overcome the exclusiveness in 1884. A Presbyterian mis-
sionary in Manchuria, Ross, had previously reached some Koreans by
working in the annual border market, and Dr. Allen, of this Presbyterian
Mission, became the representative of the United States Government. Dr.
Allen's surgical attendance on a prince who had been cut in a street attack
was the occasion for winning the favour of the rulers and opening the way
for missionary work.

How India was opened by trade, colonization and then imperial in-
% corporation, has been outlined. Officially all India has been open
^ since 1857.

Colonization gave operating bases on certain coasts of Africa. Heroic
explorers, of whom David Livingstone is the greatest of many, made the
beginning of the missionary work the end of their sacrifices. Explorers
with other motives also brought into light the wide reaches of "darkest
% Africa." In 1884-5 (in the Treaty of Berlin) the European governments,
by formal treaty, partitioned the great unoccupied areas among them-
selves, agreeing to respect the allotments. The interests of the natives
played no part in the negotiations.

The Islands of the Seas were appropriated by the various " powers," but
the opening for the Gospel was chiefly made by the heroism and martyrdom
of the missionaries. The voyages and discoveries of Captain Cook, in the
latter part of the eighteenth century, "awakened at that time in Europe a
romantic enthusiasm," which so affected Carey that he was looking to the
Tahitans as his field of labour, until shortly before his going to India. These
islands were usually easy prey for the land-grabbing nations, and the Church
" gave of her sons " liberally to follow the openings and to make new open-
ings at the price of many lives.

2. Moslem lands have been far more difficult of access, as would be
expected from the nature of the religion and from the history of Moham-
medan and Christian contacts. So long as they remained under Moslem
political control they did not admit missionaries 'with any freedom, and
"never until 1909 with permission to proselytize Mohammedans. British
and American protection had made possible missionary operations in the
Turkish Empire from 1819. The burst of freedom and liberalism of the
"Young Turk" party of 1909 was short-lived. The status of the mis-
sionary remains a problem in the country of Mustapha Kemal. Much
Mohammedan population and territory have passed under British and French
control, in India, Egypt, other parts of Africa, in the Near East and in
Malaysia; and some five millions in the Philippines are subject to United
States control. This has given a measure of freedom for Christian mis-

PREPARATION FOR THE MODERN EVANGELICAL ERA 137

sions; but governments are naturally and properly cautious of arousing
religious antagonisms.

3. Catholic lands have always been potentially mission territory for
Protestant churches, as all Protestant countries were classed as mission
fields by the Congregatio de propaganda Fide of the Catholics. Not until
the latter half of the nineteenth century did countries under Catholic
political rule permit efforts to evangelize any who were even nominally
"children of the Church." The progress of the principle of religious
freedom has been slow, and is still far from universally accomplished.
Mexico became legally open to propaganda with the establishment of
the Republic under Juarez, 1867. With the unity of Italy in 1870, evan-
gelicals might propagate their faith. In South America there began, about
1810, a double movement; for independence of Spain and Portugal and for
republican government. With the success of these efforts came the begin-
nings of Protestant freedom. This has grown until it is at last approxi-
mating general realization, but with powerful resistance still in certain
countries. Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines and smaller islands were
completely opened as a result of the Spanish-American War, 1898-1900.

In the reintegration of Europe since the War, under the Treaty of
Versailles, and the League of Nations, religious freedom and liberty of
propaganda are assured to all. Yet the true meaning of this principle/ seems
to be little comprehended. Actual persecution is frequent in some coun-
tries, and has been especially severe in Rumania. Russia knows nothing
of the human rights in religion. Social repression operates against non-
conformists in all countries when an "Established Church" has long ex-
isted. The world has, however, come at length to respect in some measure
the essential, natural right to religious freedom. In spite of many obstacles
in many lands, no land is now wholly inaccessible to the missionary. For
the moment one must except Russia.

XI
CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH

13? ever an idea was originated in any man by the Spirit of God, it was
this idea of the evangelization of the world." Leonard, who quotes this
sentiment with reference to William Carey, adds: "And the year of
grace 1792 is annus mirabilis, the famous date from which to reckon back-
ward and forward." He places the action led by Carey alongside the
"Separation of Barnabas and Saul"! for the missionary work (Acts
13: iff.), Paul's call "to lay the foundation of the Gospel in Europe,"
the Lutheran Reformation. Carey has long been rightly reckoned "the
Father of the modern missionary movement." That in face of the fact
that there had been so much work done before him. Nearly all the pre-
vious Protestant work had been on a wrong basis of support and had
had such relations to politics and trade as both to hinder its spirit and
make uncertain its continuity. As a matter of fact, colonial missions
were declining in support and in promise just when the expansion of
Europe into the rest of the earth was creating an undreamed opportunity
and a challenge to Christian conscience that could not be ignored.

No church was prepared to accept the challenge and seize the oppor-
tunity. The state churches were hampered by their official relations with
politics. The non-conformist churches were under limitations and re-
straints and generally were lacking in the sense of corporate unity and
solidarity that would make easy their functioning as agencies of this en-
terprise. In any case the missionary conviction had as yet seized only a
small minority of the membership of any church, and the Spirit of God
would not wait on corporate agreement and action. It was only natural
that He would inspire leadership in the most individualistic of the Chris-
tian denominations. Even here the inspiration would come to a relatively
obscure minister, with no official standing among his brethren and with
no traditions connecting him with the conservative sentiment of his Bap-
tist brethren. He came out of the state church, wherein his father was
a parish clerk and a local schoolmaster. Circumstances of health deter-
mined his apprenticeship to a shoemaker and poverty served further to
limit his opportunities. In the providence of God, which goes too often
under the concept of accident and incident, he thus fell in with godly
dissenters and was brought to saving experience of Jesus Christ in one
of those open-air revivals that so scandalized good churchmen. His break
with his own respectable religious tradition and connection was completed
when, under the call of a sermon on " Let us go forth unto him with-
out the camp bearing his reproach," he won courage to go into a little
Baptist church. With Carey thenceforward conviction meant action, and
he shortly found himself preaching and becoming responsible, in 1784,

138

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 139

for the pastoral supervision of a church. The Bible was his guide and
vade mecum.

William had an uncle, Peter, who was a sailor and adventurer. From
his boyhood, Uncle Peter's stories had fired his imagination for geographic
flights. Cook's voyages fed the fires. Bible and geography were working
in his soul when, in 1784, Jonathan Edwards' call to a concert of prayer
"for the advancement of Christ's Kingdom upon earth" was republished
in England. Carey's own Northamptonshire Association sent out a call
for united prayer on the part of all Christians. For, Carey this, meant
active effort. In his shoeshop he studied his Bible and the world. On
the wall he fixed a paper on which he made a map on which he inscribed
data about the peoples of all lands and their religions. So careful was
he that his facts are to this day taken as reliable for his day. He talked
to all who would listen about "the duty of Christians to go everywhere
telling the glad tidings to all." In 1789, when he was pastor in Liecester
and gaining a good standing in his denomination, he was urged by the
venerable moderator of the association, John Ryland, Sr., to propose a
subject for discussion. He hesitated, but was urged, and proposed the
question : " Whether the command given to the apostles to teach all nations
was not obligatory on all ministers to the end of the world." It was not
very gracious for the moderator to call out : " Sit down, young man. You
are a miserable enthusiast to ask such a question. When God wants to
convert the world He can do it without your help; and at least nothing
can be done until a second Pentecost shall bring a return of the miraculous
gifts." By 1791 Carey had put his "Enquiry" on paper, and one of his
deacons had agreed to make possible its publication, Carey undertaking
to use any profits from the sale for beginning a fund for inaugurating a
mission. , The sermons in the association that year showed how Carey's
influence was working. Sutcliff preached from I Kings 19:10: "I have
been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts;" and Fuller from Haggai
i :2 : " This people say, the time has not come that the Lord's house
should be built." Carey failed in an effort to capitalize the emotion aroused
for proceeding to organize. But he was winning friends. In May, 1792,
he was himself the preacher. He threw all his soul into the effort to
precipitate action. His sermon was based on Isaiah 54:2-3. He drew
from the passage two great challenges: "Expect great things from God;
attempt great things for God." He used the formative ideas of the Bible,
the history of Christianity, the condition of the world to enforce his line
of thought and appeal. Although he mightily moved his hearers, they
again put him off, but appointed a meeting at Kettering for October 2.
There a small group came together and on that date twelve ministers
formed the first society for promoting the evangelization of the world,
with an initial subscription of thirteen pounds, ten shillings and six pence.
What was new in all this, justifying the making of this October 2,
1792, an age-turning event may not be so easy of statement; yet the
whole story of the missionary movement since then is coloured and
largely fashioned by the principles that were involved in the action of
these ministers in the Widow Wallis' little breakfast room of a back

140 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

parlour in Kettering. It is most fitting that a Baptist layman pur-
chased this property and presented it to the Baptist Missionary Society,
in 1922, when it was opened as a permanent missionary museum and
shrine for devoted pilgrimages of tribute to the grace of God working in
that event.

Here was the beginning of organization distinctly and specifically for
missions, with no other idea or objective. The missionary society brought
together those who were committed to this idea and enterprise. This
exclusive emphasis had an educational and promotional value and enabled
thdse who were thus brought together to concentrate on the practical
expression of their convictions.

This organization defined the principles and the fundamental ideas for
most effective missionary work, and thereby emphasized these principles
for thoughtful Christians. Their motives were correct. These they de-
fined as: the need of the heathen; loyalty to the essential spirit of Chris-
tianity; the glory of God in the development of His Kingdom; the
authority of the command of Christ as expressed in the Scriptures. These
men had a .wholesome respect for denominational convictions, and believed
that effective work depended in measure upon agreement in the views
and forms of the religion which they would offer to men of other faiths.
It was not sectarian bigotry, or doctrinal narrowness that caused them to
form their own organization, but a sound recognition of the necessity for
agreement of those who would walk together. English Baptists have
always had a broad catholicity of feeling and practice toward their
fellow-Christians. Their wisdom in forming an organization of their own
communion was justified in the subsequent history. The London Mission-
ary Society, only three years later, was begun on the non-denominational
basis and sought to ignore all creedal lines, but the course of missions
led along ecclesiastical lines and left the London Society as the channel
for Congregational ("Independent") effort. Thus the founders at Ket-
tering set forth their programme: "As in the present divided state of
Christendom it seems that each denomination, by exerting itself sepa-
rately, is most likely to accomplish the great ends of a mission, it is agreed
that this society be called ' The Particular Baptist Society for propagating
the Gospel among the Heathen/ "

Missions now became a distinctively Christian enterprise, dependent at
all points and in all ways upon the Holy Spirit active in believing Chris-
tians for its support and its success. It had no political or commercial
or other secular relations to help or to hinder. It was a Christian under-
taking free from all entanglements. Only those were connected with it
who were committed to it. It was based on individual responsibility.
Here was a missionary society, autonomous and responsible within itself.
Not even did the Northampton Association of ministers undertake it, nor
the Baptist churches. Membership was individual and conditioned on
participation in the support of the work. "Every person who shall sub-
scribe ten pounds at once, or ten shillings and six pence annually shall be
considered a member of the Society." Auxiliary societies were formed
immediately, beginning with one in Birmingham; and two months later

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 141

it was provided that two delegates from each auxiliary should sit in the
annual meetings of the society.

In no case did an ecclesiastical organization begin this missionary move--
ment. In every church it would have been found impossible to win official"
or majority approval of the missionary idea, and especially its practical
undertaking. It was long after that the churches officially incorporated
missions into their schemes of responsible activities, and longer still before
this ranked as one of the major interests of the churches. Even yet
some even of the larger denominations provide for world evangelization
hardly more than the crumbs that fall from the table of the home interest
children.

Once organized for missionary work, the Baptist Society's next step
was to find missionaries. Naturally, they turned to Carey. In the face
of difficulties and obstacles which would have prevented any but the most
heroic of souls, and which rationally would seem to make it his duty to
remain at home, Carey went, in 1793, to India. His own choice had been
Tahiti, about which he knew more and which appealed to him through the
romantic glamour of Cook's descriptions. In the providence of God he
had to go to the populous and strategic India, because the only compan-
ion . available was a certain John Thomas, just then home in London
after five years in India, and eager to go again to India, and nowhere
else. Thomas was an erratic, emotional soul with a fatal propensity for
contracting debts, yet a deeply religious man whose heart responded pas-
sionately to the need of the ignorant and superstitious idol-worshippers in
India. Already he had learned the language and preached and taught. He
had gone out as a ship's surgeon and remained hi India, both to avoid
pressing creditors and out of desire to preach to the heathen. He was
athrill with finding his fellow-Baptists ready to begin the support of
missions and keen to associate himself with them. But it was only India
for him; and thus the great pioneer was led to set his light upon a
lampstand in a large room and not in a dark corner of an out-of-the-way
place.

When Carey came into his personal experience of religion and began
his testimony for his Master, he began to study to equip himself for in-
telligent ministry. In the ten years between his conversion and his going
to India, all the while compelled to earn a living for his growing family,
and that often of the most meagre, he learned Greek, Hebrew, Latin,
French and Dutch, besides carrying forward his knowledge of botany and
kindred nature studies, in which he had been interested from early boy-
hood. We must pass over his problems with an illiterate wife whose
sanity was not uniform and who refused to go with him; the opposition
of his Harvey Lane church at Leicester, which was ready to pray and
give money, but by no means prepared to give up their pastor for the
sake of the heathen; his troubles with John Thomas' debts; the refusal
of the East India Company to book missionaries or consent to their med-
dlesome settlement in their territory. It is an engaging story and in-
structive for that the Lord delivered him out of all his troubles and
brought him at length to India with his wife and children; brought him,

142 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

to be sure, into fresh troubles, but delivered him out of them all, for he
was a man with a stout heart, a heroic temper, a genius for "plodding"
in endless labours; brought him into exactly the best place at that mo-
ment for developing and demonstrating the principles and the technique
of missions to non-Christian peoples. His life and labours for thirty-nine
years, with never a return to England, offer to students a rich laboratory
record, as they constituted at the time a compelling demonstration of the
duty and the effectiveness of an enterprise for making the world Chris-
tian. Carey had become the inaugurator of a new and apparently final
period of Gospel expansion. It was not merely that he was a pioneer, but
that his pioneering was characterized by convincing wisdom and demon-
strating effectiveness. An English Bishop of Bombay (Mylne, Missions
to Hindus, quoted in Robinson, p. 83), after summarizing his work, says:
"I should hardly be saying too much did I lay down that subsequent
missions have proved to be successful, or the opposite, in a proportion
fairly exact to their adoption of Carey's methods."

OTHER BRITISH SOCIETIES

Once the way was pointed, there was speedy following up of the be-
ginning. The voluntary association of interested individuals was shown
to be the effective precipitant for the sentiment of missionary expansion
so extensively in solution in the various churches of Christendom. Or-
ganizations followed fast upon the lead which had been given. The Lon-
don Missionary Society was first, September, 1795. It was constituted
with high enthusiasm as an inter-denominational agency, some of those
who came together for the purpose rejoicing quite as much in the wider
fellowship of Christians as in the thought of saving the heathen. Tahiti
was their first field, to which, in 1798, they sent a group of above thirty,
all told, including men of every trade necessary to a self-containing colony.
Most of these were ill prepared for the undertaking, and had no ade-
quate sense of the nature and difficulties of the work they were to do.
Deaths, sickness, desertions tried the faith of missionaries and society.
But they proved equal to the strain, and finally made a success of even
this unpromising beginning and went forward into new fields. The inter-
denominational experiment was not wholly successful, and the London
Society one of the greatest came to be the organ of the Congregational
churches, but has always conducted its work on the principles of a broad
catholicity. -

Societies were organized in both Glasgow and Edinburgh (later called
the Scottish) in 1796, ultimately to be absorbed in the operations of the
Scotch churches, by 1847. Their first work was in West Africa.

In 1799 representatives of the "Low Church" wing of the Church of
England formed a "Society for Missions to Africa and the East," the
name of which was, in 1812, changed to "The Church Missionary So-
ciety." It proved to be one of the very foremost of all in extent of work,
number of missionaries and financial investment. It lacked the favour of
the ecclesiastics at first. No bishop identified himself with it till 1815,
and only nine up to 1840. The able and godly Henry Venn won its recog-

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 143

nition as an agency of the Church in 1841. In 1815, this society opened
a missionary seminary at Islington in which hundreds of missionaries
have been trained. The " High Church " element found in the " Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" an instrument al-
ready available. From its centenary, .1801, its work among the heathen
received the emphasis rather than, as before, the work among colonials.

In 1804 a colporteur of the Society for the Propagation of Christian
Knowledge told to a group meeting in a " public house " in London the
story of Mary Jones, a Welsh servant girl who at great pains had at
length saved money enough to buy a Bible in her own tongue; how she
had made a long journey on foot to buy it, only to be told that the agent
had but one copy left, and that he was saving for a purchaser who had
already paid the money for it; how, upon Mary's weeping in her bitter
disappointment, he had let her have this one Bible, trusting that its pur-
chaser would be willing to forgive him and wait for another to be gotten.
It was proposed to form a society for providing Bibles for all in the
British Isles who might desire them. One of the company Hughes
said, "And if for Britain, why not for the world?" It was agreed. The
British and Foreign Bible Society was the result. Thus came into being
the agency that has put the whole Bible, the New Testament, or some
part of it, into the languages of a large part of the human race. It has
produced translations in not fewer than five hundred tongues, for a great
majority of which it was necessary to invent alphabets and to introduce
the tribes for the first time to writing. In this way the beginnings of
civilization were made for hundreds of backward groups of mankind.
There is nothing more romantic, more heroic or more significant for civil-
ization than the work of producing and distributing the Scriptures by this
society. Nor is there conceivable a more powerful proof of the truth and
power of the Christian religion than the library and museum of the products
of this organization in Fleet Street, London. _

The Wesleyans were relatively late in organizing their missionary so-
ciety, 1814. This was not because of lack of zeal. In Thomas Coke this
body of evangelistic Christians had, all in one man, a mission board, sec-
retary, treasurer, superintendent, solicitor. From 1779 the Wesleyans made
the American frontier their mission field. In 1786, under the lead and
patronage of Coke, they entered the British West Indies; Africa in 1811.
He was just about to open work in Ceylon when he died, at the age of
seventy-six, having crossed the ocean eighteen times in his missionary
journeys. His Church now had to organize to carry on the work he had
inaugurated. Unfortunately, not all the Wesleyans co-operated, but formed
a half dozen or more societies for work in various directions.

The Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society began in 1841, and the Lon-
don Medical Missionary Society in 1878.

One of the missionaries of the Edinburgh Society, after some five years
in China, became one of the foremost missionary founders and leaders
of modern times, James Hudson Taylor. The realization that in only
six of the eighteen provinces of China was there any spokesman for
Christ weighed upon his conscience until he was led, in 1865, to found

144 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

an agency for occupying these neglected provinces. The China Inland
Mission was a notable movement. Mr. Taylor realized that no existing
organization could undertake this task. All were strained to finance what
was already undertaken. No one denomination could be asked to assume
this burden. He was utterly opposed to debt, personal or corporate, and
was convinced that religious work should be conducted on the basis of
faith, sacrifice and cash payments. His dominating motto was to "move
men through God by prayer alone." He insisted that spiritual qualifica-
tions are supreme for the missionary. Hence he planned an extra-
denominational organization that would enlist Christian men and women
^regardless of church affiliation; missionaries would trust God and accept
such compensation as should be provided, and in no case incur debt, either
personal or as an obligation of the mission; the plans and needs would be
made known to the friends of the missions, who would be asked to unite
in specific prayer for these specific needs; the organization and operation
in China would rigidly safeguard the principles of the mission and pro-
vide for ecclesiastical differences of the missionaries. There were some
vagaries, and the task proved more difficult than could be foreseen; but
the ends were ultimately achieved and the mission exerted a tremendous
influence on the missionary thought of the period. After fifty years, all
^the provinces had been at least partially occupied, one thousand mission-
'' aries were engaged and fifty thousand converts had been accounted for.
The Mildway headquarters of the mission became a centre of power for
/ evangelical and evangelistic Christianity.

The unique H. Gratton Guinness and his family followed the general
principles of the China Inland Mission, besides enlisting his own great
fortune in the East London Institute, which trained workers by the hun-
dreds and conducted mission work on the Congo, work which was later
turned over to the American Baptist Missionary Union.

From 1878 the Salvation Army entered the foreign field, and has con-
tinued in a line of work similar to that in which it has so notably served
in Christian lands.

British women have from the first been active in their interest, and from
about 1840 have had auxiliary organizations.

This summary of British response to the call of missions cannot mention
any but the outstanding facts and features. Until the twentieth century Brit-
ish Christians were the leaders of Christendom in this world work.

ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA

American Christianity was in close touch with that in Great Britain.
The thrill of the new movement was quickly felt in the United States.
It might have been expected that in the freer atmosphere of the newer
conditions such a movement would find initiation. But there were press-
ing problems of nation building, the religious appeal of a rapidly expand-
ing frontier, and the wide reaches of territory with poor facilities- for
communication. Then there was, especially, the preoccupation with home
concerns and the national policy of avoiding, as far as might be feasible,
all international relations. On the other hand, the missionary work on

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 145

the frontiers and among Indians prepared the way, as did the great
revivals that swept the country, and the union with British Christians in
the concerts of prayer in the last decades of the eighteenth century. In
Great Britain the prayer calls explicitly included world-wide evangelization
petitions. These calls awakened immediate reactions in America.

William .Staughton, from London, was present at both the Northampton.
Baptist meetings in 1792 and contributed half a guinea to the offering
at the formation of the society, borrowing the money. He was a young
student preacher from another association, and so did not become a mem-
ber of the organization. The next year he went to Philadelphia and
became at once a bond of sympathy between his brethren on opposite sides
of the sea and a promoter of the missionary idea among American Bap-
tists. A Dr. Rogers, in Philadelphia, was appointed to receive gifts for
the work of the English Baptist Society as early as March, 1793, and was
able from time to time to transmit considerable sums. Carey wrote from
India to American Baptists, and his letters to his own society were some-
times reproduced in the United States. /

The sermons and addresses upon the occasion of the founding of the
London Society were distributed in a special American edition, and cor-
respondence with various leaders in the United States was carried on
by leaders of missions in England and by missionaries on the fields. Co-
operation with this society began promptly and continued. The fueling
of oneness with the English movement is indicated by the election, in
1804, of the president of the London Society an honorary trustee of the
Massachusetts Missionary Society. Prayer unions, public meetings and
private praying in behalf of the work of the London Society became preva-
lent in. 'New England. The founding of Andover Theological Seminary;
in 1806, looked definitely to the preparation of men for missionary service
as one of its objectives.

To Samuel John Mills, Jr., falls the honour of leading definitely to
organization for independent and responsible undertaking of the work
in the United States. He was the son of a Connecticut home missionary,
who was sometime editor of the Massachusetts Missionary Magazine.
Praying for two years that God would give her a son who should be a
foreign missionary, his mother accepted him as God's answer and dedi-
cated him to this purpose, which she did not conceal from him as he grew.
She told him about Eliot, Brainerd and other missionaries. He came to
feel that no cause in life "would prove so pleasant as to go and com-
municate the Gospel of salvation to the poor heathen." Going to Wil-
liams College, in 1806, he soon found a small group of kindred souls
with whom to study and pray about the heathen and their need. How
this group of young men in their hay-stack prayer-meeting, in 1808, were
led to commit themselves definitely and form a band "to effect in the
person of its members a mission to the heathen," is well known. The
centennial of this act was celebrated by the dedication of a memorial shaft
on the site of the hay-stack. They wrote their constitution in cipher
because "public opinion was against them," and they might be "thought
rashly impudent, and so should injure the cause we wish to promote." Bv

146 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

personal interviews with leaders in the ministry; by correspondence, even
with the London Missionary Society; by "deputation work," as the modern
phrase has it ; by procuring the publication and .circulation of missionary
sermons and addresses, these young students prepared the way for definite
action. Meantime, in 1809, Mills, Richards, Hall and Rice go to Andover
and are joined by Nott, Newell and Judson. With the encouragement of
members of the faculty of Andover Seminary, they procured a conference
of ministers in Boston, June 25, 1810, which advised petitioning the General
Association of Massachusetts to become responsible for sending them out
to the heathen. The association was meeting in Bradford, June 26. This
move resulted in the organization, on June 29, of the American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It was not until 1812 that the
faith of the elders was equal to the actual sending out of the first repre-
sentatives. In February of that year five were sent and four wives,
to India.

Mills did not go. But he became a great promoter of the work at
home. His leadership brought about the Cornwall Mission School for
Indians; the United Foreign Missionary Society; a school in New York
for the education of Negroes; the American Colonization Society, which
promoted the movement that produced the colony and republic of Liberia;
and, greatest of all, the American Bible Society, 1816, second only to the
British and Foreign Society, as a factor in the work of missions and
civilization.

The American Board grew rapidly as an agency for foreign work, and
located missions in many quarters. While brought about in connection
with the Congregational body, it was open to all Christians and was the
\ agency especially of Presbyterians, even 3,0 late as 1871. It has been
unsurpassed thus far in the United States as a promoter of successful
missionary work.

It was a great shock for the American Board to get a message from
India in a few months that two of their missionaries had united with
the Baptists and were no longer able to represent the board. While some
of the members were bitter in their denunciation and published some
severe words of censure, on the whole the board accepted the disappoint-
ment with Christian grace. Judson and Rice, independently on their
long voyages to India, were preparing to face the English Baptist mis-
sionaries by study, with the 'use of their Greek New Testaments, all mat-
ters pertaining to baptism. Judson arrived first, and after full conference
and consideration felt bound in conscience to accept immersion along with
his wife. Rice also reached India with misgivings, and under a sermon
by Judson was constrained to follow his lead. Here there were three
American Baptists in India for missionary work, with no home authority
or support. England and the United States were__at war. Americans
could not be accepted by the English Baptist Society as their mission-
aries. Besides, the English Baptists felt that this was a providential de-
mand for the organization of American Baptists. Since he was unmarried,
Rice proposed to return and organize support for the Judsons. Before
going to India, Judson had advised Dr. Baldwin, of New York, that Bap-

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 147

tists should organize. Rice found in Baldwin, and in Staughton, of Phila-
delphia, men ready to help. Letters from both Carey and Judson reached
Boston in February, 1813, just one year after Judson's sailing. "The
intelligence spread (among Baptists) with electric rapidity, and gave to
benevolence and Christian obligation a depth and fervour never before
experienced. One sentiment of deep thanksgiving prevailed. The provi-
dence was too-plain to be mistaken. The way had been opened, the field
had been prepared, the true-hearted must enter and prosecute that to
which they had been summoned." In May, 1814, there met in Philadel-""
phia twenty-six ministers and seven laymen from eleven states and the
District of Columbia and formed the " General Convention of the Baptist'
Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions,"
which purpose seven years later was further defined by adding, "and
other important objects relating to the Redeemer's Kingdom." Rice reached
home a few months later and became the devoted and tireless agent of
the convention for all the rest of his labourious life. Here was the be- -
ginning of the Baptist denomination of America, as a unified body with
a corporate consciousness, a product of the missionary idea and aim.

For a number of years these two and the Bible Society were the only
general organizations in America. Episcopalians formed their Domestic
and Foreign Missionary Society in 1820, but co-operated closely with the
organization of the Mother Church in England, and not until 1830 began -
sending their own missionaries directly to foreign fields. Presbyterians
found the American Board sufficient channel for their interest until 1837;
the Dutch Reformed until 1857; and the German Reformed until 1865.
Methodists began definite work among American Indians in 1819 and took
up foreign missions in 1833. v

Controversies over slavery and political principles produced divisions in
various denominations between North and South, resulting in separate
organization for mission work, Baptists 1845, Methodists 1846, Presbyter- -
ians 1861. Women began to organize for instruction and for raising
money as early as 1800. In 1830, the Female Foreign Mission Society,*-
New Haven, sent Mary Reynolds to Smyrna. Women's organizations have
developed in most of the denominations, either working through, or closely
co-operating with, the general agencies of their denominations. Definite
and extensive organization of women began in 1868. In the twentieth cen-
tury we see the beginnings of woman membership on the general boards.

It is obviously not possible even to mention the organizations of the
numerically minor denominations so numerous in America; nor the numer-
ous independent and special organizations, many of them ephemeral.

It was only natural that Canadian Christians would co-operate at first with
the organizations of the mother country. After the middle of last century,
with the growth in numbers and the growing Canadian self-consciousness,
denominational organizations arose in nearly all the denominations.

ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE

Germany failed to maintain the position of leadership which it took in
the early advocacy of missions, and the formation of missionary societies

148 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

was not only delayed in the modern era, but had a somewhat erratic devel-
opment. Halle remained a centre of evangelical fervour and of interest
in world evangelization, but was not unaffected by the sea of rationalistic
thought by which it was surrounded, and failed very widely to influence
the settled formalism which afflicted the State Church. The East Indian
Missionary Institute, which grew out of the Danish-Halle Mission, finally
gave up sending missionaries, but had an income with which it gave aid
to the Gossner and Leipzig Societies when they came into operation. The
""Moravians continued to afford an avenue of approach to the heathen
^world that interested German Christians. \When the movement for organ-
ization got well under way in England, German Protestantism followed
the fashion. From the first there were many Germans to work with the
British missions until they developed their own. More attention was
given in Germany than elsewhere to training missionaries, and a number
of schools arose for this purpose. German interest also manifests more
of individualism and eccentricity, sometimes generating rivalry and con-
v flict. xThe first seven societies were inspired by Pietism, as might have
been expected. No one general society for the Lutheran body has even
yet been formed. Germany, coming so late into the field of world empire,
lagged behind Great Britain, and once in the field of world politics was
too concerned with making good her delayed "place in the sun" to par-
ticipate full strength in world- wide evangelization. After 1870, and espe-
cially after 1885, interest in colonial missions was responsible for a number
of Provincial Missionary Conferences and other forms of activity. The
four most important normal organizations, in order of their entrance upon
actual foreign missionary work, may be mentioned. The " German Society
for the Promotion of Pure Doctrine and True Godliness," founded in
1780, was just in time to be interested in the rising enthusiasm in England
for a world Christianity. In 1815 this society founded in Basel an insti-
tute which trained eighty-eight missionaries for the Church Missionary
Society (of England), and from 1816 published a missions quarterly. In
1822 it began to send its own missionaries, and has remained a major
factor in this work. A call, issued in 1823 by ten Lutheran leaders, for
"charitable contributions in aid of Evangelical Missions," resulted in a
society in Berlin which has continued as an important factor. A prayer
union, formed in Elberfield in 1799, produced, in 1828, the Rhenish Society,
which came to be second only to the important Basel Society. A small
organization in Dresden, 1819, began a preparatory missionary school in
1832, developing, in 1836, into a missionary seminary, in which year the
organization began to send missionaries. It was transferred to Leipsic in
1848 and took the name of that city. It was ambitious to become the
general society for the entire Lutheran Church in Germany. As in other
countries, Germany continued to produce small organizations for special
interests or as exponents of special ideas. Three organizations that arose
under individual leadership are instructive in the history and science of
missions. "Father Jaenicke, of the Bohemian Church, in a school in
Berlin, trained missionaries who went out under English and Dutch socie-
ties. He became a director of the London Missionary Society. In 1836

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 149

Grossner founded a society popularly called by his name, but known also,
more accurately, as Berlin II., to distinguish it from the older and more
normal organization. It emphasized self-support by the missionaries, less
expense in the conduct of the work, and less importance on the confes-
sional qualification than was usual in the case of Lutheran societies. He
was already sixty-three years old, but a vigorous, compelling personality,
and gathered a large support. For more than twenty years he dominated
his movement, being, as he said, "Inspector, House-father, Secretary and
Pack-ass." For support, he "rang the prayer-bell rather than the begging-
bell/' and probably influenced the ideas of J. Hudson Taylor. After his
death the society continued, but gradually dropped its peculiarities in
favour of the normal functioning of a missionary society. Pastor Ludwig
Harms, in 1849, founded the Hermansburg Mission. His idea was to send
out self-contained colonies to plant Christian communities in the midst of
the heathen. The plan attracted great attention for a time, but developed
strife and met difficulties. His organization also came to be a normally
working organization. Women formed societies from 1842 onward. The
Pietistic temper of many Germans has made them especially sympathetic
with the China Inland Mission and the Christian and Missionary Alliance.

Quite naturally Dutch Christians formed organizations to follow up the
work begun by the trading companies . under state patronage. As early as
1797 Van der Kemp led in an organization in Rotterdam. Later a number
of independent organizations grew up on the voluntary basis and the State
Church took up missions as one of its functions.

Notwithstanding their relatively inferior numbers and other disadvantages,
French and French-speaking Swiss Evangelicals formed in 1824 the " So-
ciete des Missions Evangeliques," popularly known for a century now as the
" Paris Society." It has been notable among missionary agencies, especially
in the last forty years of French colonial expansion, when British and Ger-
man organizations were either barred from, or seriously hampered in, terri-
tory controlled by France. At first the society proposed only to procure
funds, and in 1825 opened a school for training missionaries; but in 1829
began sending their own missionaries.

In general, in Scandinavian countries, as elsewhere in Europe, we dis-
cover two sets of movements, in the Established and in the Free churches.
The adventurous spirit of these people and their spiritual fervour have
caused the Scandinavians to volunteer most freely for missionary service,
and they are found in the employ of almost all important organizations and
in all parts of the world.

As British colonies developed, organizations for missions came into being
and grew in importance, in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, as well
as in Canada; and in this among the various denominations. In general
these reproduced, on smaller scale, the conditions and plans of organiza-
tion in the larger and older areas. They do not call for individual treat-
ment in a work so limited as this must be. The same applies to the
growth of missionary spirit and organization in the mission countries.
Reference to these will appear in the outline of growth in the several
countries.

150 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

OBJECTIVES, MOTIVES, PI,ANS

Within the missionary movement is to be found a variety and progress
in the expansion objective corresponding in a general way to the motives
and objectives of the secular expansion of Europe over the rest of the
earth. Individual evangelization has been a very definite objective
throughout, and must remain so, although the exact nature and the end
of such evangelization have been differently conceived. The emphasis
on enlisting the individual for eternal salvation in heaven has relatively
lessened as the more immediate and present significance of following
Christ has come into clearer understanding. " Snatching brands from the
eternal burning" has lost much of its power of appeal it may be too
much under a more meaningful definition of "becoming a Christian."

The geographical idea has operated in much of the expansion. "The
knowledge of God should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea."
That any part of the world should be ignorant of God's supreme approach
to the world in His Son was a dishonour to Him, a reproach to His
Church and an infinite calamity for those in ignorance. If "the earth
is the Lord's," "the kingdoms of this world" must "become the Kingdom
of the Lord and his Christ." The modern movement was much influenced
by an extensive interpretation of the petition of the Lord's Prayer: "Thy
kingdom come; thy will be done as in heaven, so on earth." Latterly, the
emphasis veers to an intensive application of the petition. Both are essen-
tial to a right understanding and a worthy programme.

The motto of the Student Volunteer Movement adopted from the begin-
ning was : " The Evangelization of the World in This Generation." For
thirty years this constituted a thrilling challenge to all the churches and
worked powerfully in calling forth both volunteers for missionary ser-
vice and support of the undertaking. Gradually a change came. The
"generation" was passing and "the world" was not "evangelized." The
insufficiency of any "evangelization" that could conceivably be accom-
plished in one generation came more and more to recognition in mis-
sionary thinking. The influence of certain millennial theories of history
and of missionary work and objectives greatly lessened. It was seen by
many that the task of any generation of Christians is to evangelize the
world of that generation; that the people in the world of any period
must be evangelized then or never; that history moves chiefly by the
processes of social evolution; that Christ is at once the supreme factor
in the evolution of the human race and the revolutionary force that alone
can change the direction of social evolution where it is degenerate and
laggard, and set it in the way of the goal of the Kingdom of God.

As this shifting of insights and emphases was progressing came the
World War. With it came the disillusionments concerning "Christian
nations," " Christian society," and all the complacent optimism that the
evolutionary ideas of society had engendered in Christian thinking about
the world's becoming Christian. During the war the machinery and
the work of missions were of course much disarranged and sometimes
completely disorganized. There has ensued a period of rethinking and
recasting that is necessarily very extensive and very thoroughgoing. In

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 151

this many minds have been engaged, innumerable conferences, conven-
tions, commissions and committees have been occupied. A new mission-
ary statesmanship is in process of emerging. If there have been those
who found amateurish occupation in the problems of statesmanship more
congenial and less exacting and uncomfortable than the toil and endur-
ance of actual missionary work, there have been, also, those whose efforts
were under compulsion and direction of the Holy Spirit, and whose work
is producing an increasingly wise guidance of the Christian undertaking
in the new world conditions of this century.

MISSIONARY CONFERENCES

The advantages of conference and exchange of experience were seen
in some measure from the beginning of the modern era. Friendly inter-
change was often profitable. Alexander Duff, Scotch Presbyterian mis-^
sionary and Christian statesman in India, was the leader in bringing about
formal conferences for study of the problems, methods and means in the
growing work. The history of these conferences would constitute an
illuminating approach to a modern science of missions.

It was in May, 1854, that a group of eleven missionaries, eighteen officers
of missionary societies and others to the total number of about one hun-
dred and fifty met in a New York church for a day and a half, consider-
ing the problems and methods of missionary work. Their chief topic was
the relative advantages of the policies of concentration and diffusion in
the conduct of the work a question about which there is always differ-
ence of opinion, due partly to temperament, partly to ecclesiastical theory
and partly to different conditions and environment in the spheres of work.
Robinson, in his History, points out that Carey had at once seen and
practiced the .wisdom of planting Christianity as a permanent, constructive
factor in the life of a country by building up strong centres, while he
also studiously made these centres bases for as wide diffusion as forces
and resources made possible.

This first conference aimed "to manifest the real unity of Christians, v
increase interest in the work and secure a more intelligent co-operation
in carrying it on." It was gratefully recognized that there had been little
interference in the work among various agencies, yet it was desirable that
consideration be exercised in this regard as the work expanded and the
workers increased in number.

In October of the same year a similar conference, called in London, was
not so successful, only a few coming and the meeting being brief.

In 1860, in Liverpool, one hundred and twenty-nine members of a con-
ference represented twenty-five British societies, included two American
missionaries and dealt seriously and at length with a number of questions
and made a contribution to the literature of missionary strategy with a
volume of proceedings, covering four hundred and twenty-eight octavo pages.

The widening of interest and the deepening need for such conferences
is evident in the Mildway (London) Conference of 1878. The sense of
urgency was dominant, discussions dealing with details of the individual
fields and with each in its relation to the world. The question was

152 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

prominently before the conference to define what could be hoped to be
accomplished in the immediate future. Twenty-six British societies, six
American and five Continental societies were represented, and the one hun-
dred and fifty-eight members included two women the first instance of
this. A great popular meeting in Exeter Hall closed the conference.

We are by this time in a period when there was great awakening of
popular interest among the churches in the work of missions. The up-
heavals and readjustments in political Europe stirred to new life. In the
United States people were recovering from the Civil War aftermath.
Stirring activities and transitions were moving in European interests in
Asia and Africa. The Treaty of Tientsin, in 1873, made a new challenge
for China. In the same year the ban on Christianity was removed in Japan.
In Africa, Livingstone's death in 1873 and the subsequent burial of his
body in Westminster Abbey, while his heart remained in the soil of Africa,
fired Christendom into a flame of enthusiasm while European imperialism
was reaching out to grab all the continent. In Great Britain and in the
United States an era of evangelism was awakening a new mass interest
under the lead of Henry Drummond and Dwight I/. Moody and their
numerous coadjutors.

Conferences were obviously necessary to any wise and harmonious
meeting of the needs and opportunities. They were frequent within the
different countries and among various kindred groups. The time was
also at hand for periodical general conferences. In 1888 there was held
in London the " Centenary Conference on Foreign Missions," June 9-19.
In a general way the date marked the completing of a hundred years of
modern effort. It devoted fifty sessions to a searching scrutiny of every
department of missionary work and to the public record of the results.
"The great object was to encourage the churches to press forward in
obedience to the last command of Christ . . . and to confer on those nu-
merous questions which the large expansion of the work had brought into
the foreground." "Invitations were sent to all holding the 'common
faith,' from the venerable parent ' Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel' to the youngest of the family the Salvation Army. And it is
rather strange, and has been a source of great regret to the committee,
that these two extremes of ecclesiastical order and evangelistic methods
have stood aloof from the movement, even though it was in a spirit of
' benevolent neutrality/ With these exceptions, the Society for the Propa-
gation of Christian Knowledge and some minor organizations dependent
on the S. P. G., 'every society in the British Isles entered cordially into
the movement.' " (Report I : xi.)

The wide interest and deep enthusiasm for missions is reflected in the
presence of one thousand five hundred and seventy-six persons, represent-
ing fifty-seven societies of the United States, fifty-three British, eighteen
in Continental Europe, nine Canadian and two in British colonies. One
hundred and eighty-three went from the United States, and thirty from
Canada. There were four hundred and fifty-nine women.

The subject of "Missionary Comity" was presented in two elaborate
papers and occupies fifty-nine pages in the report.

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 153

An important step was taken in Toronto in 1892, when the 'Alliance
"Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System planned for a con-
ference in HSfew York, in 1893, of all foreign mission societies in the
United States and Canada. This was participated in by twenty-two socie-
ties and the Young Men's Christian Association, and organized the "In-
terdenominational Conference of Foreign Mission Boards and Societies in
the United States and Canada." A similar organization was formed in Great
Britain in 1911. Both these meet annually and maintain continuous service in
established headquarters, for the benefit of all the participating organizations.

With the centenary celebrations of the various societies, beginning with
the Baptist hi 1892, the history of the work of each was prepared with
care, and extensive study was made of the whole movement. Thus much
material became available for scientific study of the motives, methodology
and technique of missionary work.

In 1900 the Ecumenical Missionary Conference met in New York. It
was more elaborate than any of its predecessors. It came in the midst
of the Boxer Uprising in China with its anti-foreign bitterness; the Boer
War in South Africa with its powerful influence over British imperial
policy; the attainment of primary position among the nations by Japan,
which in 1901 was formally recognized as one of the "five first class
powers" of the world; the Spanish- American War, which besides reducing
Spain to inferior rank projected the United States into world politics with a
marked change from the historic policy of the nation in international affairs.

This conference sought to grapple with the enlarged and vastly more
complex task now before the forces of Christian evangelization. It was
evident now that new phases of nationalism would affect the work of
missions. Also a second major factor would be the "Ethnic religions"
which were taking on new life. Efforts were making to reform and mod-
ernize them and to check the progress of Christianity among their adher-
ents. There was a growing demand for "comity" and "co-operation"
among the forces seeking to deal with so challenging and complex a call to
the Christian Church.

Looking forward to the next ecumenical missionary gathering, appointed
for Edinburgh in 1910, eight commissions were appointed to study care-
fully and report formally and fully on as many phases of missionary need
and strategy. Of special importance were the matters of Education in
Missions; die non-Christian Religions; Relations of Missions to Govern-
ments; the Home Base; Unity and Co-operation. Dr. John R. Mott and
other promoters of the conference conceived the idea of having the Roman
Catholic Church officially participate in the conference. Failing that as,
of course, it must fail they invited some Roman ecclesiastics to come in
private capacity. One or two who agreed to come, later found it incon-
venient to be present. There was not a little criticism of the promoters
for confining the scope of conference consideration to work among non-
Christians, excluding all work of Protestants for the evangelization of
Catholics. This led to holding a Latin-American Conference in Panama,
in 1916, to be followed by a similar but more comprehensive conference in
Montevideo, in 1925.

154 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The proceedings of Edinburgh were published in eight important vol-
umes. The most important action was creating a "Continuation Com-
mittee" under the leadership of Dr. Mott. This committee undertook a
series of Continuation Conferences designed to "carry Edinburgh to all
the mission fields;" and to provide a voluntary unifying and counselling
supervision of all Protestant missions. This work had proceeded with
numerous regional conferences in India, China and Japan, when the War
made its continuance impossible. As the War dragged its tragic devasta-
tion through the years it became evident that the missionary work would
call for reorganization and in large measure for reconstruction. Much
had been suspended, some destroyed, all seriously affected. A self-
constituted provisional emergency committee was doing what it could to
save the situation and plan for the future. A volume was prepared and
published, after careful study by a large number of the most competent
missionary statesmen, undertaking to appraise Foreign Missions in the
Light of the War.

There were those who thought to utilize the methods of unification,
co-operation and merging of funds and forces, which had won the War
for the Allies, in a stupendous campaign against the powers of sin and
evil, and to take the world for Christianity by a great concerted compelling
manifestation of devotion and idealism. It was a grand scheme, and an
enormous energy and enthusiasm went into projecting the Interchurch
World Movement. It proved a most disappointing fiasco, sinking millions
of dollars in largely futile plans and efforts, and producing a lingering
reaction of great detriment to the cause. The churches had to learn that
Christ's Kingdom is "not of this world," that organization and money
are not the chief instruments by which the Christ gains His redeeming hold
on humanity.

In 1919 a small group of specially chosen men and women met by invi-
tation at Lake Mohonk, New York, for an International Missionary Con-
ference. Under the masterly leadership of Dr. Mott, this conference
continued, with meetings in London, Basel, Oxford, etc. They were sal-
vaging the worthy remnants of the Continuation Committee plans and
programmes; studying world conditions; constructing a new statesman-
ship to meet the new situation. At length they were prepared for the
Jerusalem Meeting of the International Missionary Conference, at . Easter,
1928. Two hundred and fifty representatives came together for two weeks
and faced the world in the name of Jesus Christ and of human need. They
defined the spiritual issues of the modern world with inspired penetra-
tion; outlined the problems and plans called for by the urgent opportunity
and the determined opposition; and amazed themselves and mankind by
reaching unanimous agreement in a statement of the Christian Message.
The membership represented almost all the major missionary churches and
agencies, all the major mission areas of the world, with the sending coun-
tries and the receiving' countries represented on a common basis, the
"older churches" and the "newer churches" counselling on a basis of
complete equality and fraternity.

Maintaining offices in both New York and London, this International

CAREY AND THE NEW EPOCH 155

Council is energetically seeking to stimulate, inspire, counsel and guide
the whole evangelical movement to do the utmost for meeting human need
in all the world with the full measure of the Gospel of the living Christ.
This it aims to do without any but advisory and fraternal relationship and
authority, and without any direct encroachment upon the autonomy and
independence of any of the existing churches and their agencies. The
eight volumes of the proceedings of the Jerusalem Conference are an
authoritative conspectus of the world outlook for Christianity in 1928, and
a source for materials for scientific study of the world conditions and of
the Christian capacity for dealing with the conditions.

The Edinburgh Conference (1910) occasioned the inauguration of the
International Review of Missions, published quarterly in London and dis-
tributed also from New York. This has been an arena for scientific,
scholarly and statesmanlike discussion of the various aspects of the mis-
sionary work, reviews of the more serious and able books, the voluminous
output of which is significant; and thus has played a large part in the
working out of missionary science. Each number carries as a supplement
the quarterly Bulletin of the International Council. A most important
feature of the Review is the annual (January) survey of the progress of
Christianity and its problems in all parts of the missionary world. Such
surveys were formally given by the Missionary Review of the World (New
York, monthly). . '

NATIONAL COUNCILS

Corresponding to these conferences in the homeland and the interna-
tional, interdenominational assemblies representing the world, there has
been a steady advance in co-operation in counsel and plans in the more
advanced and larger missionary countries. India and China have been
foremost here, but recently the Near East and Africa have called for
conferences on a larger scale. The first general conference of mission-
aries was in India, in 1855. Japan had an annual conference from 18. . to

The Centenary of Evangelical Missions in China was the occasion

of an important Christian Conference in Shanghai, in 1907, promoted and
directed mainly from the United States and Great Britain, but with gener-
ous place given to Chinese. The Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh
Conference promoted conferences of missionaries and nationals in all the
major Asiatic sections and stimulated the growth of national Christian
consciousness in each country. From the middle of the nineteenth century
conferences of missionaries had become more and more important. By
1922, when a National Christian Conference was called in Shanghai, the
time seemed ripe for constituting a National Christian Council, predomi-
nantly national in its membership and committed to the unification of the
Christian forces and following in China in co-operation for evangelization,
and in influence over the changing industrial, economic, political and social
life of the country. Without any doctrinal formulation or ecclesiastical
commitment, and with distinct denial of any intention to interfere with
such matters, the council does undertake to represent "the Christian
Church " in China and to promote its work, its influence on the life of

156 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

the nation and its progress ; and to speak for Chinese Christianity in inter-
national conferences and matters generally. With offices and an extensive
secretariat in Shanghai, this council functions in a powerful way. This is
the model for a similar development in other countries. Such councils had
definite place and representation in the Jerusalem Conference, and sustain
very important relations with the International Council.

All this indicates the rapid advance in recent decades in the sense of
unity of Evangelical Christianity and in the "unification of its impact on
the life of the world. The tendency toward organic union is evident
within this movement of missionary unity, although those who would use
the missionary agencies for co-operation in their efforts at organic unifica-
tion have not been permitted to gain control. There remain as yet many
unsolved problems and many questions to be answered before any formal
union of Christendom can be undertaken. The convictions of a large part
of the evangelical following stand firmly against any organic union that
in any measure places power of control over belief or conduct of individ-
ual congregations in any central and superior body. " National Churches,"
in an organic sense, are repugnant to the democratic conscience of "free
churches," and history confirms their position. There needs to be clarifica-
tion of terminology to facilitate fraternity and co-operation in the Christian
acceptance and discharge of the obligation to introduce Jesus Christ effec-
tively into all the world for regeneration and reconstruction.

xn

INDIA

INDIA was the first field to be earnestly and successfully undertaken by
Protestant missions the Danish-Halle. It was again the field of Carey,
to whom credit is universally given for inaugurating the present period
of missions. Besides being the oldest of modern mission fields, India is made-
attractive by Christian traditions running back to the Apostle Thomas and
has had Christian churches since the second century, if not even in the first.

It has been the most extensively occupied of all countries in the modern
era in the number and variety of organizations undertaking work within
its borders and the number of lives devoted to its evangelization by Profr^
estants. It affords the greatest number of converts to the Christian faith-
and the largest Christian census population now above five million to x
be found in any non-Christian country.

Next to China, it has the greatest number of human beings in any coun-
try. Its three hundred and twenty millions population are almost as numer-
ous as all the inhabitants of all the Americas, plus the entire pagan
population of Africa. These millions include several races the basal stocks
being reckoned by scientific students from three to five with languages
and dialects running into hundreds. These without taking account of rela-^|
tively small numbers of Europeans, Chinese and other Asiatic immigrants./
The Aryans (Indo-Germanic) have been the dominant race section for
probably three thousand years, and some form of their language, which
has three main branches, Sanskrit, Hindi and Marathi, is spoken by two-
thirds of the people. Dravidians are in India an older race, and include a
fifth of the whole in language, probably far more in racial history. A
still more primitive element, formerly classed under the name Kohls but
now confessed to be an unsolved puzzle, includes numerous smaller groups
of "hill peoples" and depressed peoples in various sections, especially
Burma and South India. The Mohammedan invasions brought in a strain
mingled of Arabian, Syrian, Persian, Turanian and Mongolian elements,
which in turn complicated its blopd with Indian elements. If one seeks i^"
yet other racial factors, they are to^find, no doubt.

Social and religious history and institutions afford the student as much
variety and complexity as do the races and languages, and are of more
immediate concern for missions. The dominant Hinduism, with two-thirds
of the people as adherents, in its three thousand years of history, has
undergone innumerable modifications, reformations, amalgamations, sec-
tarian divisions. It has made place within its cults and worship for as
many and as varied aifii^stie practices and superstitions as the ignorant
and unenlightened might bring with them, so long as the Brahmanic priestly
headship and dignity were recognized and the laws of the elaborate caste

157

158 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

system of social organization were accepted and guarded. Besides six
" orthodox " ways of salvation, the religious soul of India has elaborated
literally hundreds of minor and local ways of seeking satisfaction for its
spiritual hunger. These are all free to function, so long as caste is not-
broken and no attack is made on the exalted and regnant rule of the
Brahmans or on the ancient beliefs and customs. Hinduism is supremely<-
the " inclusive " religion of all history.

Mohammedanism's seventy million place them second in numbers, and-
they stand much more nearly on an equality with the Hindus in influence
than their numerical proportion would suggest. Beginning somewhat before
1000 A. D., Mohammedan invaders came in waves into India through five
hundred years, establishing themselves in political independence and domi-
nance in various regions, especially in the northwest and later across the
central part, until alien rulers had the most extensive and prosperous do-
minion Indian history has known from the days of Asoka to the rule of
Britain. This exclusive religion coerced and attracted millions of converts,
and continues to win accessions at a rate that, with the increase by birth,
adds a million a year to its following. Still it is exclusive only as a
system against other systems. It finds room within its order for wide
variations of belief and practice, and has not escaped the Indian caste
consciousness. [Not only does Mohammedanism have to accept a sort of
separate caste classification for its entire membership, but it has also
incorporated caste divisions within itself, in spite of its theory of com-
plete equality within the Moslem brotherhood. Its divisions are less in-
flexible than in Hinduism, but are far more clearly marked than such
distinctions in the West. .

Gotama broke for himself the Brahmanic oppression and the caste bond-
age and produced a religion of deliverance. It made more or less progress
in India until the days of Asoka, the brilliant organizer and ruler of a
largely unified India. This enlightened monarch was a devoted Buddhist,
whose son became the leader of Buddhism's golden age of missionary ag-
gressiveness which set forward the Buddha's gospel on a campaign which
in a thousand years sent it to the furthest confines of Asia, until prac-
tically all Central Asia, China and Japan had come to seek hope for the
future through its teaching and by worship in its temples. Meantime,
with eight hundred years of royal favour, it prospered in India, but never
without the resistance of the patrons of the mother faith, which it modified
but could neither reform nor wholly displace. Then Brahmanism began
to gain the ascendancy. Driving out some by persecution, incorporating
far more by subtle assimilation, and with the aid of the rapidly growing
Mohammedan power, Brahmanism succeeded in eliminating this Reforma-
tion Religion from the main peninsula, to which it is returning only in
recent decades by means of missionary effort from Ceylon, with support
from other lands. In Ceylon and in Burma, Buddhism was permanently
established as the practically universal religion, but at the price of in-
corporating a mass of animistic superstitions, demon worship and idolatry
unsurpassed in all history. Thus the third factor in the religious complexity
of India. To this we must add Jainism, Sikhism, native reform move-

INDIA 159

ments from the sixth century B. c. and the sixteenth A. D.J aid the remnant
of ninety thousand Parsees, spiritual as well as blood descendants of the
Zoroastrians. To it all we must add, still, numerous "modern religious
movements," of which Farquhar described no fewer than fifty a quarter of
a century ago.

The outstanding social fact of India is caste. To its four divisions a
fifth is added in the outcastes, themselves one-sixth of the total popula-
tion. Not only are these five divisions rigidly defined and guarded by the
most inexorable regulations .in all social relations, but each one is sub-
divided almost interminably, making literally thousands of traditionally
inherited and religiously imposed social compartments into which all
Hindus are fixed by birth for their entire lives. To illustrate the extent
to which this fixation goes, the Brahmanic caste includes altogether only
some fifteen million; yet they are subdivided into socially exclusive groups,
of which the eminent Scotch missionary, Wilson, tabulated one thousand
eight hundred and eighty-six. One authority estimates that there are no
fewer than a hundred thousand such separated groups within the social
organism of India.

The second most important social fact is village life. After all the
changes brought about in the modern progress in cities under British occu-
pation, nine-tenths of the people still live in villages and towns, with a
large measure of local group autonomy. India presents a rural prdblem
for the Christian worker. Illiteracy is a third social fact. The combined
efforts of Christian missions, the British educational system and the efforts
of Mohammedan, Brahmo-somaj and other native groups, stimulated by
Christian example, have succeeded in a hundred years only in reducing
illiteracy from ninety-eight per cent to ninety per cent.

On its political side, India is of acute interest. Great Britain has, with
however little of deliberate design, made possible and inevitable a
national consciousness such as never existed in India in such degree until
within the twentieth century. The Swaraj movement would have been
quite impossible apart from the course of England, and equally impossible
apart from the influences, direct and indirect, of Protestant missions.
Gandhi himself, as leader of this movement, is a product of the spirit of
India instructed, aroused and guided by the influences of Christian con-
cepts and example. Through her long history, India's course has been
determined by outside forces. The Aryan invasions set the course from
ancient days. Alexander made concrete the Greek impact, which left a
living element of progress and opened the way for repeated stimulating
contacts with Europe. Various Mohammedan assaults began in 644 and
culminated in Akbar's Mogul Empire in the sixteenth century, not to be
completely subordinated until the latter part of the eighteenth century, when
the British found it necessary to suppress the various contenders for the
throne. Europe's political encroachments were begun by Portuguese at
Goa and on Ceylon around 1500, in protection of trade shameful excuse
for wide aggressions of ambitious natic'is. The Danes followed in 1616
at Tranquebar and Serampore. The Dutch took the Ceylon post from
the Portuguese in 1651 and opened another post near Calcutta. The Brit-

160 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

ish East India Company, with its gigantic monopoly, proved a pioneer of
empire for Great Britain through all the Far East. From 1613 to 1765
they were content with planting trading posts. As these prospered and the
spirit of imperialism grew, colonies came gradually into permanence, calling
for political backing. The upheaval of 1757, establishing British power
and policy in the Battle of Plassey, left the company still to represent
British interests. These were administered in close co-operation with the
company's agents until 1858, when, following the terrible Sepoy Rebellion,
the Crown and Parliament exercised direct rule over growing dominions;
and in 1877 formally incorporated the Empire of India, proclaiming Vic-
toria Empress of India. Gradually, through her growing occupation and
evolving administration, Great Britain wrought unity out of age-long divi-
sion and diversity. This was for her own advantage in her most impor-
tant possession. But unification, enlightenment and progress grew a unitary
consciousness in India, and so gave birth to nationalistic ambitions which,
under the intense conditions of the twentieth century, became a flaming
passion that will, if it can control itself, shortly lead to Dominion status
within the great empire.

Thus India presents in principle every problem which Christian missions
and a nascent national Christianity can face. It is a complete laboratory for
-testing all the principles and powers of the religion of Jesus Christ.

MISSIONS BEFORE CAREY

Behind William Carey and John Thomas, when they reached India in
I 793j lay seventeen centuries of Christian effort in influence that had
trickled into India in such thin, irregular and ill-defined streams 4 as to
afford nothing definite as a point of approach for the file leaders of a
movement aiming at the Christianizing of an empire. Eighty-six years
of Protestant effort through the Danish-Halle combination had accomplished
results which by 1800 numbered thirty-seven thousand baptisms, with some
twenty thousand still living in the churches. The giant personality of
Schwartz still wielded tremendous influence as spiritual father, beloved
of all missionaries, unofficial bishop of all the Lutheran churches, "Royal
Priest of Tanjore" to native kings and heathen, counsellor, mediator and
conscience for British administrators in their growing dealings with rajahs,
nawabs and nizams. It was five years after Carey's arrival that Schwartz
ended his labours, " able even on his deathbed to give utterance to many wise
and spiritual counsels, which were for long treasured up in faithful hearts."

The Danish-Halle Mission was already losing its support at the home
base. The Danish Government was being supplanted in India by growing
British trade and political occupation, and would not support the work in
a colony it was destined to lose. In Halle, rationalism was chilling the
ardour of the missionary impulse. Support for the German workers in
London was influenced by rising controversies along several lines, and the
Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge would continue its
support for the most part only for literary work. By 1840 there would
be left of this important pioneer Protestant mission only an endowment
administered by the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge.

INDIA ' 161

The Moravian Brotherhood, from 1739 to 1803, projected a remarkable
number of workers in efforts that were barren of any permanent results
and little of even temporary success, largely because they were unable
either to gain the sympathy of the Lutheran group in the older mission or to
bring themselves to act independently. Thus in its first stages did sectarian
rivalry hamper Protestant progress. Richter (p. 125) boldly charges against
his own denomination that " all this splendid missionary force was crushed
out of existence through pure (sic!) denominational jealousy."

The earliest Christian approaches to India come through such uncertain
testimony, beginning with the traditions of the Apostle Thomas, that we
know for certain only that up to about 340 there were certainly at least a
few churches, some little literature, including at least the Gospel of Matthew,
some participation in Christian counsels (Bostra), and consequently some
infiltration of Christian influence into religious thought.

From 345, for about four centuries, there was an aggressive period of
Syro-Persian Nestorian growth, stimulated in the first instance by immi-
gration of Christians escaping the Persian persecutions which began a
forty-year repressive campaign against Christianity. A similar period of
persecution for thirty years, in the first half of the fifth century, stimu-
lated the flow into India. These Christians, however, maintained their
foreign character and imposed it upon their converts. Differences arose
subsequently. The Mohammedans harassed them in later centuries; Roman
Catholics further troubled them in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries;
and finally the Church of England further divided them in the effort to
bring them into its fold.

It is agreed by all competent scholars that in some way, in the first
millennium, the Christian concepts of faith and sacrificial love as the great
factors in religion became a powerful influence in religious thought and
experience in India; and that along with these spiritual influences, even
external facts in the life of Jesus were appropriated for describing certain
of Vishnu's Avators, notably Rama and, more extensively, Krishna. Thus
we must account for " Christian " elements in the Ramayana and the
Bhagavad-gita. Nor can we omit the reinforcement which both Jewish
and Christian thought gave to the monotheistic tendency, which has had
its history in India, as in all other lands.

From the middle of the thirteenth century, for about a hundred years
(see Chapter VI), Franciscan and Dominican monks spent varying periods
in India, exercised brief ministries at various points from Ceylon to North-
east India, with slight results, save among the Syrian Christians. It was
different when the Roman Catholics began a hundred and fifty years later.
Politics and trade were primary motives with King John of Portugal when
he sent two ambassadors to the East in 1487, in the effort to find facilities
for communication. When Vasco da Gama completed his voyage to Calicut
in 1498, East and West were connected in permanent relations. A new era
was opened for Roman Catholic missions in India (see Chapter VII) which
should thenceforward be continuous. Reaching very large numbers two
million five hundred thousand, according to some Catholic claims by the
end of the seventeenth century, this mission declined for more than a him-

162 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

dred years, until revived after 1820. Richter's statement is an exaggeration
that " nothing was left of it save ruins ;" but it was not an active movement
in 1793, and its influence was at the time more a handicap than a help to
the new approach to India.

OPPOSITION OP THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

Carey and Thomas were not permitted to locate in Calcutta. The East
India Company dominated British interests, and had no place in their
scheme for missionaries. After a fight of twenty years, the new charter
of 1813 required freedom and encouragement for missionary work. Com-
pliance was difficult of enforcement, and the attitude of officers determined
its measure until the company was displaced after 1857. Some agents and
directors were notable for their sympathy, support and advocacy. The
general attitude remained unfriendly.

Richter justly contrasts "the first Englishmen in India" tinder the
famous East India Company, chartered by Queen Elizabeth, December 31,
1600, with "their contemporaries, the devout Pilgrim Fathers of North
America." "The traders who went to India did not concern themselves
in the slightest degree with Christianity or Church. They set up harems,
and in order to win favour in the eyes of their mistresses, they did not
hesitate to worship their pagan gods. They spent eighty years in India
before it occurred to them to erect the first Christian church,"

It must be said, however, that some of the directors of the company were
good and godly men, and that a few chaplains were sent to India, even as
early as 1614, when one of them got hold of an Indian youth who two
years later was baptized in London with much ceremony, as " Peter Papa,"
the first Indian Protestant. He seems not to have returned to India, but
to have gone to Virginia. While chaplains continued to be sent out we
read of eighteen between 1667 and 1700 we do not read of any converts,
of any real efforts to win them, until after the settlement of the issue of
occupation with the French at Plassey and the horrors of the " Black Hole "
had aroused the sleeping conscience of English Christians and had awakened
all to some sense of the demand for a new attitude toward the natives.

Even so, it was not yet the company's chaplain, but a Swede, previously
under the Danish-Halle Mission, who became active in Calcutta. He was
responsible for the erection of the famous "Old Church," 1758, which is
still in use. While he had some help, he expended some forty thousand
dollars of his wealthy wife's money in the building, and it was thirty years
before the second church building was provided in all Bengal. Even so,
Kiernander was not a missionary to the Bengalese, but a minister for
Europeans and Eurasians (then called "Portuguese"). In the twenty-eight
years of his ministry, to his death in 1786, when he left a membership of
three hundred and one, he and his helpers could claim to have baptized but
eight Mohammedans and ten Hindus. They had not learned to preach in
the vernacular. A

After 1798, and especially as we turn from the eighteenth into the nine-
teenth century, we come upon notable directors and chaplains who call
for the evangelization of the natives and contribute to definite missionary

INDIA 163

work. Among such directors were Sir Robert and William Chambers,
George Udney, and especially Charles Grant, whose pamphlet, Observations
on the State of Society Among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain, par-
ticularly with Respect to Morals; and the Means of Improving it, although
for the time buried hi the archives of the company when presented to
them in 1800, was brought forth in the fight over the terms for the new
charter in 1813. It was then highly effective, both in determining the
favourable terms of the charter and in arousing the missionary conscience
in both Europe and America.

Of notable chaplains in India who took lead in the opening of missionary
work at the time, Claudius Buchanan not only contributed considerable
sums of money, but preached and wrote extensively. His sermon on The
Star of the Hast was circulated in several editions on both sides of the
Atlantic, and his Christian Researches in Asia had four editions in England
and was translated in several continental languages. Another, whose brief
life of thirty-one years, and missionary service of but six years, placed
him as a star of the first magnitude in the galaxy of influential missionary
inspiration, was Henry Martyn. Winning high honours hi Cambridge, he
went to India as chaplain, in 1806. Crying, "Now let me burn out for
God," he immediately extended his interest to the natives. He learned
Hindustani, Hindi, Persian and Arabic. Within five years he had trans-
lated the New Testament and the Prayer Book into Hindustani. Conceiving
that the followers of Mohammed were to wield a major influence in India,
he turned attention primarily to Persian and Arabic. In 1811, partly in
the interest of his shattered health, and in the interest of his mission, he
set out for Persia. In ten months in Shiraz, in spite of- torrid heat and
an amazing number of personal and group interviews, he translated the
New Testament and presented a specially bound copy to the king. Ex-
hausted, he set out for home, but died at Tokat. He stands with Brainerd,
Carey, and Judson as one whose heroic influence has led hundreds of
young men to dedicate their lives to missionary service. Martyn's only
known convert, Abdul Masih, was ordained by Bishop Hebef, in 1826, the
second Indian admitted to Anglican Orders.

The Baptist missionaries soon found it necessary to make their base in
Serampore, where their statesmanship, heroism, self-sacrifice, hardships and
success made that name famous in the history of Christian expansion. Here
they carried on evangelism, educational work, translation, printing in ever
growing volume, the beginning of a Christian literature. Hence they sent
out missionaries to Benares, Agra, Delhi, and even Bombay, opened work
at various stations in Bengal and Assam. Not content with this, they reached
out to Burma, where Carey's son, Peter, was working when the Judsons
came ; on to the Moluccas and Java. With Carey's encouragement and with
the patronage of Claudius Buchanan at Calcutta, Marshman procured the aid
of some Chinese and others, and so prepared and printed in Chinese first
the New Testament in 1811, and the entire Bible in 1822 or 1823.

CHANGING BRITISH

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was already turning its

164 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

attention to the heathen, and soon began to place the emphasis there, while
the Church Missionary Society naturally began early to interest itself in
India. The Church of England was, however, slow to advance when the
opposition was so powerful in official circles. Able chaplains of the com-
pany boldly led in changing the attitude in England, and were ably sup-
ported by religious leaders and statesmen. Wilberforce led a winning fight
against bitter opposition in Parliament that resulted, in 1813, in a charter
requiring the company "to encourage the introduction of useful knowledge
and of religious and moral enlightenment into India, and in lawful ways
to afford every facility to such persons as go to India and desire to remain
there for the accomplishment of such benevolent purposes," as also it pro-
vided "for the erection and extension of an Anglican Episcopal Church
in India." Still, the first Bishop of Calcutta (1814) was no enthusiast
for missions, and ordination for missionaries of the Church Society was
refused until Bishop Reginald Heber came into power in 1822, a notable
missionary himself. The action of 1813 contemplated only British subjects
in its provisions. It was under the next revision of the charter, which was
granted for terms of twenty years, that organizations of other countries
were free to operate. The Wesleyans began work in Ceylon in 1814, and
at Trichinoholy in 1818, and pressed forward into many places. The Scotch
Presbyterians, who first entered in 1822, were to play a great part in
India missions. In John Wilson, Bombay, 1829; Alexander Duff, Calcutta,
1830; and John Anderson, Madras, 1837, they contributed three of the great
statesmen of Christianity in India. From different angles and with theories
widely differing, in some respects seriously conflicting, they all became
pioneers of Christian education and proved the success of all their methods.

THREE GREAT EDUCATORS

Alexander Duff, rightly placed in the front rank of missionary states-
manship, came to India in 1830 with a new policy. It had three items:
he would seek to influence the higher castes; by means of liberal education;
using the English language. For thirty-three years he continued his
course, proving his wisdom in the face of great initial opposition and
criticism. By 1850 he was unsurpassed as a personal influence in the
Christian world. His schools had trained a large number of men who
gave new direction to Indian life and thought. He had exerted a tre-
mendous influence over the education policy of the Government. By 1835
the Governor-General was announcing the official "desire to naturalize
European literature and science and to foster English culture." Thence
came departments of Public Instruction in each of the Presidencies and
(1857) Government universities in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. The
" grants-in-aid " system of supporting mission schools came into operation,
greatly enlarging the capacity of missions in education. The system is
open to criticism and has not been without fault, but it has worked for
the extension of education under Christian auspices in a degree indefi-
nitely greater than could have been otherwise. Until 1854, all ele-
mentary education and practically half the high school students had been
the responsibility solely of mission schools. Now the government schools

INDIA 165

multiplied and made extremely difficult the conduct of unaided mission
schools.

John Wilson, arriving in 1829, founded in Bombay what was developed
under his hand into one of the great colleges of India, subsequently named
for him. His plan was to use the native languages and to develop a native
culture. He himself became one of the most efficient of all Sanskrit scholars.
John Anderson, coming in 1837, was a third Scotch Presbyterian educa-
tional founder, building in Madras another great school. It was he and
his converts and students who most powerfully opposed the policy else-
where Bombay in particular of ignoring caste customs as they were
brought over into Christian schools and churches. He won the fight in
theory, in 1847, and in his own work rigidly put an end to all distinctions
between Sudras and Pariahs.

These three men gave a set to Presbyterian missions which placed them
first in educational influence in India; but they only stand primi inter
pares. Schools, colleges and universities have enabled Christian missions
to do an incalculable work in remoulding India. Mohammedan and Hindu
have been stirred to emulation, and the Mohammedan university at Alla-
habad and the Hindu university at Benares owe their existence to the
challenge of Christian education.

We have seen that the first missionaries began, with Bible translation, the
creation of a Christian literature. This has now become extensive and includes
much worthy work by Indian scholars. It includes a great variety of work,
but it is obviously impossible to give any account of it here. Naturally, an
adequate Christian literature must be chiefly the product of native experience
and scholarship, and must wait for a larger native Christian consciousness.

We must not overlook the indirect efforts of missionary scholarship,
first in stimulating the European and, later, American scholarly studies
of religions, philosophies, languages and literatures of India; and, second,
in arousing Hindus to scholarly study of their own treasures. Of such
study there was next to none until it was induced by missionaries and by
foreign scholars who were led to it through missions.

The American Board chose India as their first field, but their mission-
aries were unwelcome in British territory in 1812, and limited the form
and extent of their work in Bombay and Ceylon until later. Judson could
not remain in British territory at all after identifying himself with the
Baptists, and went on to Rangoon to found what came to be one of the
most successful missionary undertakings, after long years of severest
hindrances and hardships.

When the new charter of 1833 " opened up Indian trade to all nations,
it opened up Indian missions to all churches;" and that opening was
eagerly entered. American Congregationalists and Baptists, already mod-
estly present, greatly extended their operations. Presbyterians and Meth-
odists were not far behind, and were destined to play highly important
roles. Dutch Reformed and others from America came along.

COMPREHENSIVE MISSIONARY UNDERTAKING

Thus India offered a field for romantic adventure with the Gospel that

166 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

powerfully appealed to the imagination of Protestant Christendom, at last
aroused to this duty. It was not easy work, but its importance was chal-
lenging. From the start it was apprehended that the task must be social
as well as evangelistic. The social structure of India was weighted down
with customs intolerable for the Christian spirit and incompatible with
even the first stages of Christian society. These must be changed if Chris-
tianity was to advance. Education was a dire need. Medical missions
were inescapable. The suppression of women in Zenanas, the sacrifice of
widows on husbands' funeral pyres, the appalling condition of child widows
doomed to unrelieved shame and abuse, the marriage of children, these
were only the more glaring evils, besides the imprisoning walls of the
complicated caste. Carey and his associates led the way. He continues to
amaze the world with his achievement in Bible translations, all or parts
of the Book going into no fewer than thirty-four languages under his hand.
The schools, printing presses, agricultural leadership were part of a com-
prehensive effort to plant an effective Christianity. He distinguished him-
self in the Chair of Languages in the East India Company's Fort William
College (1801), and ably co-operated with Christian leaders and statesmen
at home and in India to bring about laws to relieve the worst abuses. It
was only after long years of effort that, on a Sunday morning, the Gov-
ernment prohibition of Suttee came to Carey from Lord Bentnick. It
must be translated for proclamation. Knowing that in Bengal alone six
hundred widows were burned every year, he laid aside his preaching coat,
sent a helper to preach in his stead, and skt down at once to the task of
stopping this cruelty. This was in 1829. = It was followed by forbidding
drowning children in the sacred rivers, exposing sick and aged on the
banks of the Ganges, self-immolation under the Juggernaut cars, hook
swinging, and by rigid suppression of the caste of Thugs, who strangled
their victims as devoted to Kali. Then, in 1833, Lord Glenelg decreed an
end to the established policy of the company of patronizing, protecting and
profiting by taxing idolatry. Christian missions was thus from the begin-
ning stimulating and aiding in humanizing the life and in effecting social
reforms, a career through which progressively the social ideals and the
very structure of society are being changed.

Yet the missionaries did not neglect their first responsibility, nor forget
that the foundation of all effective efforts to change a civilization lies in
the Gospel of regeneration and moral reconstruction of individual life.
The village and caste units of life in India combined with family solidarity
to make it extremely difiicult for individuals to accept Jesus Christ and to
identify themselves with a Christian church. The vast multitudes were
living on so low a plane of poverty, ignorance and superstition as to
make intelligent response to any Gospel calling for radical break with
custom, tradition and habit difiicult for the people, when to such a great
degree their conduct was chiefly reflex action with a minimum of volition.

THE MUTINY AND A NEW ERA

The Mutiny of 1857 marks a turning-point in India's history and in the
course of Christianity in modern India. Not only did it occasion a

INDIA 167

radical change in British relations with India, but was a turning-point
in imperial purpose and in methods of administration. Missionary work
was seriously upset, much property was destroyed, some churches dis-
rupted, antagonism to Christianity aroused as a part of resentment against
foreign occupation and control. Yet it is possible to record striking
success in the Christian movement up to this crisis. There are no avail-
able statistics for the Mutiny year. In 1851 there is a fairly definite census,
and another in 1861, when recovery from the demoralization of the Mutiny
was accomplished and the new advance was beginning.

In Burma, until after the second war with Great Britain (1853), the
Baptists were the only evangelical force, having laboured since the Judsons
located in Rangoon, in 1813. Roman Catholic work, begun in connection
with a forcibly established trading station, in 1603, had but meagre results,
and these were destroyed in the First Burmese War (1823-4), and not
successfully re-established until after 1854.

Thus we find in the Peninsula, in 1851, three hundred and thirty-nine
missionaries, twenty-one native pastors, two hundred and sixty-seven
churches with fourteen thousand six hundred and sixty-one communicants,
ninety-one thousand and ninety-two professed adherents, one hundred and
twenty-nine thousand two hundred and fifty-six students in schools. In
Burma, in 1852, there were sixty-two missionaries, seven thousand . eight
hundred and seventeen church members; in Ceylon the adherents were
eleven thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine. In 1861 the census shows for
Ceylon fifteen thousand two hundred and seventy-three adherents, in Burma
fifty-nine thousand three hundred and sixty-nine, in India one hundred and
thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-one, total two hundred and
thirteen thousand three hundred and seventy-three. For Peninsular India
there were now four hundred and seventy-nine missionaries, ninety-seven
native pastors, two hundred and ninety-one churches, twenty-four thousand
nine hundred and seventy-six communicants, one hundred and fifty-three
thousand four hundred and thirty-six school students, of all grades.

This occupation was thus far not distributed throughout India, although
all the major divisions had been entered. In Ceylon it was as yet con-
fined to the northern section, in Burma to a few centres, but already
reaching out mainly to the Karens. In the Peninsula the Madras Presi-
dency had four-fifths of all adherents and Bengal four-fifths of the re-
mainder. In the Northwest Provinces a good beginning had been made,
while the Bombay Presidency and the Central Provinces had as yet but a
few hundred, and only ninety-eight are found in the Punjab. In all, there
was marked advance between 1851 and 1861.

FIRST M3DICAI, MISSIONS

Dr. John Scudder, of the Reformed Church, graduating in medicine and
with an exceptionally promising future in practice of his profession with
his highly successful father in New York, "chanced" upon Gordon Hall's
tract, The Conversion of the World, and was stirred to consecrate his life
to ministry to the physical needs of India's ignorant millions. Against all
entreaties and to the deep disappointment of his family and friends, he

168 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

" buried himself " in India Ceylon, Madura, Madras, Arcot. This was in
1819, when the American Board sent him. He was the first Protestant
medical missionary in any land, inaugurating thus what came to be so very
important in subsequent development. He not only distinguished his family
name, but transmitted his spirit so that the Scudder family is one of the most
noted in the annals of missionary and religious work in modern times. All
eight of his sons, and several of his grandsons and granddaughters followed
his lead in mission work, even to the present day and to the fifth generation.

From this time medical missions came to have more and more impor-
tance. Then, in 1857, Dr. Clara Swain went to India, and in 1860 was
formally appointed by the American Methodist Board, the first woman
medical missionary in history. She was located in. northern India. Thus
began special medical aid for women.

SOCIALLY REVOLUTIONARY METHODS

In Serampore, Mrs. Marshman and Mrs. Ward had taken much interest
Sn elementary education, and had made a beginning in teaching girls. In
1819 they effected the Calcutta Female Juvenile Society for the Education
of Native Females, aiming chiefly at the instruction of girls, of whom it
has been estimated upon what authority it is not possible to say that not
more than four hundred in all India were able to read. A girls' school
was opened in 1820. Also in 1819 the Calcutta School Society was formed
to undertake schools of all grades for the neglected classes. In the Cal-
cutta community, with a population of seven hundred and fifty thousand,
there were only four thousand one hundred and eighty in school. The
organization founded by Joseph Lancaster, in London, noted especially for
its work in South America, was enlisted, and in 1821 sent Miss Cooke to
India, the first unmarried woman missionary. When the Calcutta School
Society, to whom her services were offered, found that she would insist
on establishing girls' schools, they would not accept her, because " the
superstition was general that educated women made disobedient wives and
that husbands of girls who could read were most liable to die." All sorts
of objections were raised to " such an unheard-of revolution." Miss Cooke
was consequently employed by the Church Missionary Society, and was
for many years a leader in the revolutionary blessing. Of course, the out-
come is the general recognition of the desirability of female education and
ever-extending provision for it.

In 1854 began another innovation of the greatest moment. It had been
suggested fifteen years earlier. John Fordyce and his wife engaged a
Eurasian, Miss Toogood, and a Bible woman, and gained for them access
to the women in the Zenana of a member of the Tagore family. Fordyce
is said to have remarked: "This is the beginning of a new era for the
daughters of India." Numerous organizations undertook such work, and
the idea was extended to other countries. In 1860, Mrs. Doremus brought
about the formation of the Women's Union Missionary Society, New York,
to conduct missions especially to women in various lands; and Miss Britain
showed rare genius in promoting the organization of the missions.

That Carey comprehended in his sympathies and plans the whole Chris-

INDIA 169

tian scheme has been evident in this story. We are not surprised, then,
to find him founding the first refuge for lepers, of whom India has so
many, certainly more than one hundred thousand. Others followed the
example. About 1850, leper asylums on more extensive and scientific lines
were founded. Then, after 1868, Wellesley Bailey led in developments
which culminated, in 1878, in a general non-denominational mission to
lepers. The Government of India was led to undertake researches and
provision for the treatment and care of these unfortunates. It is well
known how, later still, the chaulmougra oil treatment was developed by
experiment in India and in London.

By the Mutiny, Christianity was a vigorous redeeming and progressive force
in India with growing .work along all lines and with ever-increasing influence.

ADVANCE AFTER THE MUTINY

After the Mutiny there was an enlarged sense of responsibility for the
religious and ethical interests of India on the part of British Christians.
The Church Missionary Society was in position of peculiar responsibil- .
ity and opportunity, to which it responded with great enlargement of its
work. The Viceroy and the provincial governors were usually church-
men, and just at this stage a remarkable number of them were earnest
Christians and greatly encouraged Christian work. The strong effort of
the missionary group to induce Parliament to provide for formal govern-
ment support of Christianity in India fortunately (as one may believe)
failed. Nevertheless, the so-called "neutrality policy," under which the
East India Company had interfered with missionary activities and encour-
aged heathen resistance, was now abolished and the proclamation of the
Queen left no question as to her own faith and that of the British nation.
She would fulfill her "obligations by the blessing of Almighty God. . . .
Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with
gratitude the solace of religion," at the same time she very properly "dis-
claimed alike the right and the desire to impose her convictions on any of her
subjects." The frank courage of the Queen and of many of her representa-
tives in India, in the face of powerful opposition, proved how groundless was
the fear that such witness and definite support of Christianity would arouse
resentment and revolution. The outcome was that it was exactly where the
rulers were most definitely Christian that the least trouble was experienced.

The American Methodists were just sending their first missionary to
India and seized the new opportunity with unprecedented forces and points
of occupation, while their ecclesiastical kin, the English Wesleyans, also
occupied many new stations. American and Scotch Presbyterians now
correlated and increased their undertakings; and Canadian, Irish and
English Presbyterians entered the field. Numerous other organizations
from Europe and America entered in response to the new conditions.

Such enlargement called for counsel in order to avoid duplications and
for constructive and progressive planning. -Duff had realized the ad-
vantages of this almost from the first, and is to be accounted really the
father of the missionary conference, so important a feature of the mission-
ary programme. Some purely local conferences had been held, some of

170 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

them quite important, as in 1847-48, in Madras. Four regional confer-
ences were held from 1855 to 1862. Now, in 1872, a "General Indian
Missionary Conference" was held, at Allahabad, attended by one hundred
and thirty-six missionaries. Beginning in 1882, conferences have been
held decennially for all India, including Burma and Ceylon. Regional and
local conferences continued as required. After the Edinburgh Conference,
1910, its Continuation Committee made India the first field of its highly
significant conferences in mission lands.

Beginning as early as 1870 with a local association at Trivandrum, the
Young Men's Christian Association has taken an important part in India,
as has also the Young Women's Christian Association, the Student Volun-
teer Movement and the unifying organization, the World's Student Chris-
tian Federation. From the later eighties these have increasingly laboured
among students. After getting the International Student Volunteer Move-
ment going, Robert Wilder gave his entire time and ability to this work
for ten years from 1892, and John Mott made various significant tours of the
principal universities, first in 1895-6. Sherwood Eddy has been a leading
factor in student work for a quarter of a century, extending his labours to
include the industrial field and race relations in India, as in other countries.

For the ever-growing class of cultured English-speaking people, includ-
ing foreigners as well as natives of India, there have been numerous lecture
tours, under the special provision of missionary bodies, such as the Church
Missionary Society; by independent speakers, such as Joseph Cook, and
upon special foundations. One of the most significant of such provisions
Is the . Barrows Lectureship, maintained by the Haskell Foundation of
twenty thousand dollars, provided by Mrs. Haskell, of Chicago. Dr. John
Henry Barrows, with the patronage of Mrs. Haskell, had promoted and
conducted a Parliament of Religions in connection with the World's Fair
in Chicago, 1893. Out of this grew the idea of a lectureship in Christianity
to be undertaken by the trustees of the Foundation. The lecture must be
given in the principal university cities, and may be given in other centres.
Fittingly, Dr. Barrows was himself the first lecturer, in 1896. Among
others have been the late Principal A. M. Fairbairn, President Charles
Cuthbert Hall (twice), Professor Charles R. Henderson (twice), Qean
Charles W. Gilkey, Bishop F. J. McConnell. The volumes publishing tnese
lectures constitute a valuable contribution to Christian Missions, Apologetics
and Studies in Religion.

FAMINES AND MISSIONS

Famines are one of India's woes. In some areas they afflict almost every
year. The most terrible of all, covering altogether fully half the country,
occurred for three years, 1876-9, carrying away many millions. Here
Christianity has had call for characteristic expression. An outstanding
example may be given of how missions served in these crises. The Ameri-
can Baptist Mission among the Telugus, Nellore the chief station, was in
the midst of one of the worst famine districts. Founded in 1840, this
mission was for more than thirty years so unfruitful that the society was
just voting to abandon it when the missionary, Jewett, home on sick fur-

INDIA 171

lough, against physician's orders, rose to declare, "I know not what you
will do. But for myself ... I will go back to live and, if needs be, to die
among the Telugu." Deciding then to "send some one to give him a
Christian burial," the board designated Rev. John Clough. He was in
India just in time to be prepared for famine relief work. In connection
with government schemes, he undertook the construction of three miles
of canal and carried it through with marked skill, employing in the adminis-
tration only his evangelists and catechists for guiding the thousands of
relief employees. By general understanding,, no candidates for church
membership were received from among labourers during relief work, that
there might be no question of mercenary motives. Then the influence was
capitalized by subsequent evangelism. At Ongole, two thousand two hun-
dred and twenty-two were baptized on a single day, and eight thousand
within six weeks. Out of this grew one of the most extensive Christian
communities in any field of modern missions. This is only one of a series
of "mass movements" toward the Christian churches. They have been
most extensive in South India and in the Punjab. The problems they pro-
duce are obvious, and have called for much careful counselling and caution
in procedure. In last century such movements were largely tribal and
elicited for the " hill tribes " great interest and effort. More recently they
have involved more especially the sub-caste peoples. The condition and
needs of the fifty million " untouchables " (by any of the four castes^ have
been much before the mind of missionary conferences, and agencies. Dur-
ing and after the great famines of 1897 and 1900 especial pains were taken
to prevent receiving "rice Christians," and the evils of mass conversions
were avoided.

NEW CONDITIONS AND DANGER OF WEAKENING THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE

Progress along all lines in India has been rapid in the years of the
twentieth century; and the interrelations of political, economic, social, cul-
tural and religious movements have become ever more complicated and
difficult. The interactions between Christianity and other religions have
become complicated and are sometimes baffling and confusing.

For one thing, it has become difficult to speak frankly about the religions
of India and about the religious and moral conditions which these religions
tolerate and encourage, if they do not actually contribute to producing them.
There has developed a policy of silence as to gross social and economic
evils that have afflicted India for millenniums and so of permitting to pass out
of consciousness the failure and unfitness of these religions to correct the
evils and to promote progress that would eliminate them. There is much
to be said for the current fashion of seeking and emphasizing the values
in the non-Christian religions. So far as such an attitude is the product
of Christian sympathy and of human appreciation it is well, but if it be so
used as to break down the sense of need and the call of duty, then it fosters
the continuance of evils that sadly await overcoming. Charity and courtesy
should not blunt the sense of evil nor blur the vision of need.

That Christianity has become a pervasive force in all phases of Indian
life is obvious to all. There are those who would now prefer for it to be

172 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

limited to the method of indirect influence, avoiding the issue of personal
identification with a Christian church. Mere proselytizing is to be deplored
and avoided. Christianity goes to India to save Indians and India, not
to add to the numbers of its own adherents or to advance itself as a
system in rivalry with other systems. But the mission of Christianity is
not fulfilled in mere modification of social and religious systems and con-
ditions which have at their very heart corrupt or radically insufficient
principles. The danger is great of toning down the Christian message,
limiting its propaganda and weakening its method until the process of
India's redemption is seriously retarded and compromised.

Recognizing the very great hindrance which Indians face in coming to
full identification with organized Christianity, we may frankly recognize
and rejoice that there are probably more believing Christians in India who
are either unconfessed or only confessed in private than are to be counted
on the rolls of all the churches. And these may have great value for India.
Still we cannot feel that Christianity has yet done for these its full work
or, through such "believers," can do its full service for India. They
encourage, but do not satisfy.

It is no idle boast of Christianity that India's leaders are inspired and
instructed by the teachings and ideals of Jesus Christ. Very many of
these leaders are ready to testify to their debt to, and not a few to their
definite dependence on, the influences of organized Christianity, both in
its missions in India and in its Western achievements. The moral and
ethical standards of progressive India are the teachings and the ideals of
Jesus Christ; and this is never more evident than when Christendom and
the " Christian nations " are condemned for their failures in relations with
" non-Christian nations," and for the sins of their own civilizations. Chris-
tians and the Christian Church are haled before the judgment seat of Jesus
Christ by their critics. They are not tried by the Dharma of the Buddha,
the L/aws of Manu or the codes of the Koran. By an amazing volume of
Indian testimony, the Christ is India's hope, and no ideal' can be stated
higher than being Christ-like or meeting His approval.
^The aggressiveness of Mohammedanism is winning as against all native
Indian faiths, because its doctrine of brotherhood offers release from the
oppression of caste, and its doctrine of God encourages an activity that
pantheism and illusion cannot inspire. But in Mohammed the religion
finds no exemplar for the modern man in any of his higher aspirations.
The broken unity of the world of Islam, moreover, weakens the historic
position and appeal of the religion. In any case, one need not hesitate to say
that India does not look to Mohammedanism for deliverance from her past
or for the making of her future.

The numerous movements for reform in Hinduism and for new religions
all show the influence of the Christian impact. They are all efforts to
eliminate evils which were seen to be a shame and a curse only in the
light of Christianity, and to promote an advance which came into view
only when the glory of God had shined upon them in the face of Jesus
Christ. It is still impossible for some of India's religious literature to be
put into a Western language; and the laws against obscenities and depravi-

INDIA 173

ties must still carry exceptions in concession to religious ceremonies. The
Brahmo-somaj frankly appropriated the personal monotheism of Chris-
tianity and much of its ethical code. It was at first a Unitarian, ethical
system, after a Christian model, with an Indian name and form; Later
it follows a Western fashion and grows " humanistic." Its distinguished
exponent, Rabindranath Tagore, has but recently given the Hibbert Lectures
in Oxford. American Unitarians and Humanists laud the Somaj. Yet
after a hundred years it remains an imitator, lacking the force of origi-
nality. The Arya-Somaj was too manifestly sectarian, and its efforts to
find in the Vedas all that was needed for the modern religious challenge
and task too strained, for it to be a powerful factor in a new order. If
Mahatma Gandhi is a prophet, and more than a prophet, he is none the
less a national prophet, who makes religion an instrument of nationalism.
We can understand him and sympathize with him, while we still must
recognize that for him Ahimsa is cultivated for the sake of Swaraj. He
is the noble and wonderful prophet it may be the political messiah of
"Mother India," and all the more so that he relies on spiritual weapons,
even when he conducts an economic campaign for a national goal. But no
man can be first of all a political messiah and be a rival to the Messiah of
the eternal soul. When India has followed Gandhi to his goal, she will
turn still to Jesus " seeking yet a country."

India of today shares in the universal trend to secularism and fs not
lacking in active anti-religious propaganda. There is, however, no country
where the appeal to irreligion is likely to elicit less response. India may
for a time find her chief religious passion in the struggle for national inde-
pendence, but it will be a religious crusade, not consciously or professedly
anti-religious or even non-religious.

INDIGENOUS CHRISTIANITY

Indian Christianity has in recent years come far along the road to con-
scious independence, autonomy and responsibility. The various problems
of transition from missionary dependence to responsible independence are
upon the churches in India and the fostering churches in other lands. These
problems have advanced to the point where more and more they are being
solved on Indian soil in councils determined by Indian experience, where
alone they can be solved, not in board meetings or church courts in Europe
and America. An indigenous organized church may not yet be clearly
recognized in India, but an indigenous Christianity cannot be overlooked.
It exists, and will create its legitimate forms, making such use of the
forms contributed by missions as its own genius and experience may find,
led of the Spirit of Christ.

Increasingly the fostering organizations have recognized the process of
"devolution," and on the whole have welcomed and encouraged it. Natu-
rally there are differences of opinion as to times and methods for passing
the responsibility primarily to the native churches. In some cases friction
has arisen, but on the whole the process goes forward satisfactorily. Pre-
mature stimulation of native demands by inexperienced or uninformed
workers from the supporting countries, on the one hand, and ultra-

174 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

conservatism of those too concerned with dogmatic and ecclesiastical forms,
on the other hand, are responsible for such conflicts as arise. On the
whole, these extremes counterbalance, and between them keep the process
in action. Naturally the high tides of national feeling in recent years
accelerate the movement for a native Christianity. Probably there has been
too little recognition of the method of local and fractional progress in
native support and control, due to too much emphasis in thought upon
organic oneness of " the Church in India."

Anglicans may well take pride in an entirely self-supporting Telugu
Indian Missionary Society, founded in Tinnevelly, in 1903. It seems to
have originated with the Telugus themselves. It began in 1904, sending
missionaries (two) to Hyderabad State. One of this group, Azariah, in
I&I2, became the first Indian Anglican bishop^-a missionary bishop ! To
be sure, the whole work is within the Anglican Church, and Azariah was at
first assistant bishop to the English Bishop of Madras.

Already, in 1913, it could be said that in the Punjab "Many congre-
gations of the United Presbyterian Mission are self-supporting and self-
governing." This local independence and autonomy is characteristic of
many missions, particularly so of the Baptists. All the larger missions,
in all the older regions, have numbers of wholly self-supporting congrega-
tions which together include probably the majority of Indian Evangelical
Christians and constitute denominations corresponding to the promoting
bodies in the sending countries.

Definite movement for a unity transcending the missionary denomina-
tional lines took shape as early as 1908 in South India, .when five separate
groups combined in the South India United Church. The Presbyterian
Alliance, organized at Allahabad, in 1911, was typical of a step in the
direction of combination. The recent (1929) union of all South Indian
churches, including the Anglican, is having serious difficulties in India and
causing difficulties in Great Britain. It is revealing concretely some of the
barriers that are insuperable without a radical change in some claims of the
denominations. Until concepts of " Church," " sacrament," " ministry " can
be harmonized, unity rather than " union " would seem to mark the limit of
helpful endeavour. Certainly a great measure of understanding, fellowship
and co-operation in the common task of serving Christ in saving India is
being achieved through the Christian Council, through conferences and
through the growing exercise of the determination to love and to recognize
all who follow the common Lord. The situation in India is rapidly coming
to the point where Indian Christians will themselves determine the course
of their development. Apparently this will be effected in good fellowship
with the older Christian bodies, whose spirit and effort have revealed the
saving Christ in India.

With a communicant following of a million and a quarter, with a census
following of six million, exercising a spiritual leadership that is inescapable
in all phases of India's complicated life, Jesus Christ stands today in the
midst of her millions and says, "Upon this rock I will build my church:"
" Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. If the Son
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

XIII
CHINA

CHIHA is the biggest thing on the map. If we reckon all that was
claimed by the "Chinese Empire" the eighteen provinces, Man-
churia, Mongolia (Inner and Outer), Chinese Turkestan and Tibet
the area, four and a quarter million square miles, is the largest continuous
territory of any nation. It is larger than the whole of Europe. What is
more to the point, it is the home of a fourth of all human, beings, approxi-
mately four hundred and fifty millions, nine-tenths of them in the eighteen
provinces of "China Proper." In no other group has humanity ever
massed itself in such continuity of history and in such high degrees of
homogeneity. While racial solidarity is lacking and there are unsolved
questions of origin, there is a recognized major stock which gives historic
character and unity ; which has been able measurably to absorb other life
streams that flowed into it and to maintain a racial and cultural unity that
moved so slowly and manifested such fundamental elements of strength as
to resist radical or rapid change. Here we have the oldest race, nation and
culture the world can show. When Abraham left Chaldean civilization
behind, China's sages were already defining from, tradition the principles
that would become written social philosophy in the centuries when Israel's
Exile Prophets were preaching an ethical monotheism such as must lead
on to a universal religion. Developing a language that was unique, the
Chinese committed it to ideographic character into which they put their
social and mystical wisdom. They made these writings the essence of
their political, social and educational system, for all of which they claimed
the sanction of heaven. And for them heaven was not autocratic person-
ality speaking by decree, but cosmic truth in ideal reality to be actualized
in its measure in human experience on earth.

Over such wide areas, with peoples of different origins, one spoken
tongue was not to be realized; but whatever the vocal sounds, deepest
wisdom was for the eyes the same in all the sections, and the ideals that
determine character were drawn for all from this common source and in-
culcated in all. The intercourse of all was based on this one language,
and it bound all together. This language they somehow made so different
from all others and so difficult of learning as to constitute it a powerful
instrument of national isolation. Dr. Milne said that to acquire it "is a
work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, eyes of eagles,
hearts of apostles, memories of angels and lives of Methusaleh/' A Jesuit said
that it was invented by the devil to prevent the Chinese getting the Gospel.

HIGH POINTS AND FACTS Otf HISTORY

China has never had a closely knit empire. Through much of its his-

175

176 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

tory parts of the country were in practice either entirely or extensively
independent of the putatively supreme authority. At some periods there
were numerous sectional rulers in opposition to one another and none
exercising control over the whole. The deplorable conditions from the
death of Yuan Shi-k'ai, 1916, to 1925, when five or more Tuchuns ("war-
lords") divided the country and opposed one another, made alliances with
one another and schemed for more power, had maintained at various periods
in the long history. There has always been also a high degree of local
autonomy. The imperial power has rarely sought to assume detailed control
of local community life, content if its sovereign was recognized and the
taxes were forthcoming, and these collected by systems that reached the
individual indirectly.

Yet through it all there was a remarkable feeling of unity and satisfied
pride in membership in the Middle Kingdom, in each Chinese being one
of the people who held "all within the four seas." Mongols and, later,
Manchus came in in great hordes and for long periods held the imperial
seats, but ruled loosely and accepted Chinese culture, traditions and ideals,
manifestly superior to their own. After all, it was China, and captors
became captives of the Chinese spirit.

The practical social unit has been the family, or clan, throughout their
history. The patriarchal principle has ruled. The village was a family
group, not infrequently every household in it having the same one of the
recognized "one hundred family names" of China.

Bound by the sea on the east and mountains on the west, the people of
China have been a self-contained people. They have won a reputation as
a peaceful people, because they have rarely been at war with outside peoples,
rarely organized for defence from invasion, because invasion was not likely.
Only once did they sweep west and south in force, and then under an alien
leadership. But among themselves they have known no century unmarked
by civil strife and internicene conflict. Yet theirs are always "family
quarrels " with which a stranger meddleth to his hurt

Chinese claim for their "Empire" a history from dim distance, cer-
tainly as far back as 3000 B. c., before we are obviously dealing with
bizarre myths. Astronomical calculations of theirs are said to be verifi-
able as early as 2249 B. c. Wu Wang, claimed as founder of the Chow
(Chou) dynasty, inaugurated the cult of the Son of Heaven. After cen-
turies of glorious power, this dynasty frazzled out in a period of " warring
states," general disintegration and times of calamity. Its dates are given
as 1100-255 B. c. In the centuries of its decline came the great philosopher-
statesmen I/ao and Kung. Lao had the honorific tze and Kung the double
title fu-tse. These were Romanized for the west as Laotsius and Confucius.
Thus the cultural foundations of China were defined in days of political dis-
solution and all subsequent political history has rested on these cultural bases.

Shi Hwang, in 255, arose to unify China and found a new dynasty. His
family, Tsin, or Chin, gave the usual western name of the country. It
was he who built the great wall to keep out the Mongolian peoples whom
he had driven back. His effort to destroy all books has puzzled students
of history. One may hazard the guess that the Confucian scholars at the

CHINA 177

courts of provincial and local kings were the bulwarks of their strength
with the people, and that Shi Hwang regarded them as, therefore, a source
of weakness for imperial unity. Having restored unity and strength
Hwang's family quickly gave place to the Han dynasty, who ruled from
206 B. C. to 620 A. D., during which Buddhism was introduced and won its
way to wide recognition. Now came the Tangs, to give theirs as one of
the names of China, and to hold sway until 940. Then a long period of
invasion, first by the Mohammedan Syro-Persians, and then the Mongol-
Tatars with their widespreading empire, which, in. the fourteenth century, in
the loose way of such empires, included all China, India and westward to the
borders of the Black Sea. It was now that their traders and diplomats
penetrated Europe until Europe's peoples trembled with fear of invasion.

It was the Chinese Ming rulers who overthrew the Tatars and gave a
native control from 1341-1644, although the Khans were not expelled until
1368. Two families becoming involved in a dynastic war at the end of
the sixteenth century, one invited the Manchus in to assist, and they re-
mained from 1618 until overthrown by the Revolution of 1911 and the
setting up of the " Republic " in 1912.

CONDITIONS IN THE PERIOD OF EXCLUSION

Against this background we have to study Christian contacts and .in-
fluences on China. Already we have sketched these up to the modern era
of evangelical missions. That era opened with little to encourage Prot-
estantism in its call to China, and it has laboured against heavy hindrances
through its whole career. All the more remarkable and encouraging are
its achievements and the position which it holds in China's present struggle
and hope.

The first feature of the situation was that for nearly a century China
had officially insisted that she had had enough of foreigners, especially of
Europeans. A new Emperor, Yung Cheng, came to the throne in 1723,
whose accession marks the culmination of growing opposition by definite
steps for checking the growth of the foreign religion. The missionaries
had kept Christianity distinctly foreign, and had emphasized this fact in
the reference to Rome of questions in the long and bitter conflicts among
the different orders of monks over the Chinese rites. On the side of
their religion Chinese -Christians were under foreign control; and the
practice of their religion, under decision of a European power, drew
them away from some of the most characteristic .Chinese ceremonies, such
as the worship of ancestors, participation in .the seasonal state sacrifices,
social functions and guild rites. Only in 1656 was the first Chinese or-
dained a priest, and he had been given a Spanish baptismal name Gregory
lyopez, instead of Lo Wen-tsai and was sent to Manila for his educa-
tion. He served the church in the days of persecution and foreign ex-
pulsion after 1664. In 1674 he was appointed a bishop. Over this there
was much controversy, he refused a subordinate appointment under author-
ity of a Dominican, and was not ordained until 1685, had no see until
1690, when he was more than seventy-five years old, and died before
actually serving as Bishop of Nanking. Not until well within the present

178 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

century did the Catholic Church ordain a second Chinese to the bishopric.
This incident fully illustrates the foreign nature of the Catholic Christianity
in China.

Affairs in Europe in the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
greatly weakened the support of the work in China, while the national
quarrels, conflicts and rivalries were reflected in the East, and revealed
definitely to Chinese leaders the dangers they faced from the foreigners.
The conservative scholars, so influential in China, opposed change, and
especially the introduction of alien elements into their society.

The Dominicans had become the uncompromising advocates of a thor-
oughly European Christianity, with complete surrender of heathen prac-
tices. In one of their centres in Fukien Province a movement was started^
against the missionaries, just in 1723, and the matter reached -the new
Emperor through the Viceroy's request that Christianity be exterminated.
The outcome was a decree, January 10, 1724, limiting missionaries who
might remain in China to a few .skilled in astronomy, and they to live in
Peking, while all church buildings were to be confiscated and all Chinese
to renounce the Christian faith. After strenuous efforts, a concession was
gained permitting missionaries to stop in Canton instead of Macao, to
which they had been ordered. We have seen how imperial administration
is dependent upon subordinate and local officers and public sentiment. The
decrees remained, and persecutions were numerous and repeated right on to
the Opium War. It was in 1838 that the court in Peking left vacant the
post of foreign astronomer for the first time since Ricci was engaged.

Under such conditions, it is impossible to say how many Catholics there
were in China in 1800, but various estimates all place the number above
two hundred thousand. It can hardly have been more than two hundred
and fifty thousand. That so many held firm and continued to come in
under such persecutions attests loyalty and conviction. The moral stand-
ards of Christian living, too, seem to have been on a definitely higher
plane than non-Christians practiced, although leaving very much to be
desired. There were few schools, and these strictly ecclesiastical. " On
China and its culture as a whole, the missionaries had made almost no
impression" (Latourette, p. 195).

The Chinese limited rigidly all foreign intercourse. Trade was restricted
to a few points, almost to Canton, and was monopolized in the powerful
Co-hong. On the other side, British contacts were restricted within the
East India Company, Dutch to their Company, and all were largely de-
pendent upon the Portuguese settlement in Macao, which they held under
lease which has been perpetuated. Of political relations in the proper sense,
there were none. Imperial China made no interchange of diplomatic repre-
sentatives until 1873, an d at the time before us now treated all consuls of
other governments with proud contempt. To this attitude of official China
we must add the fact that France, Spain and Portugal were under Catholic
domination and unfriendly to Protestant approach to China. There is evi-
dence of the use of political power to hinder the Protestant missionaries. The
British East India Company was thoroughly unfriendly to missions, and
would permit none on its ships.

CHINA 179

JUSUGION AMONG CHINESE

A strong case can be made for the thesis that the Chinese are not
antagonistic to new religions as such. China has three non-exclusive
religions, to all of whfch the majority of Chinese yield some measure of
adherence. Christianity is an exclusive religion, and as such meets an-
tagonism from all other religions. Too generally its exclusiveness has
been interpreted, even by its own advocates, in a competitive sense. It
is rightly exclusive only as it is complete and hence comprehensive. It is
exclusive in the interest of its own integrity, to. avoid amalgamation; and
in the interest of those whom it will save, to prevent their contamination
with corrupt practices. A complete religion must be exclusive of other
.religions, but not of truth or of men.^ Partisan exclusiveness is a mark
of incompleteness. Practically every Chinese is consciously, avowedly a
Confucianist. Until the current exaltation of Sun Yat-sen and the obses-
sions of the new nationalism, Confusianism was almost identical with
Chinese loyalty. Since the priests of nature worship appropriated the
patronage of Laotze's name and fame and gave a sectarian connotation to
the great philosopher's doctrine of the.Tao, the vast majority of Chinese
have been .Taoists in much of their practical religion. Confucianism makes
a religion of the social order, with its five fundamental relations to be
accepted as the basis of all social and political life, and to be punctiliously
observed according to the rigid rules of "propriety." The ancient wor-
ship of heaven and of earth by the Emperor in behalf of his nation was
incorporated in the practice of Confucian ethics, so that this system in-
cluded the seasonal provincial rites and sacrifices performed by the gov-
ernors and locally by the magistrates. Public ancestral halls with the
tablets sacred to the hero-deities and benefactors came within this religion
also. Then the national recognition of the Confucian classics as the basis of
all culture, education, honours and preferment for civil service completed the
universal grip of this system on the people. It was a religion of social order
in present human relationships, all comprehensively included and regulated.

Aminitnism peopled air, earth and the waters under the earth with
spirits, good and bad, and arranged them under a more or less orderly
system of polytheism. The ways of these spirits could be known and
controlled only by and under direction of those instructed in the com-
plication of the Way (Tao) of the spirit world and the cosmic order. Here
was the opportunity of the Taoist priest, and his became the religion of man's
adjustment to his living spiritual environment. Not many were enlightened
and bold enough to dispense with the ministration of Taoist priests.

But the long future of the soul who will instruct men and prepare
them for that? Here was a serious lack. It came to press as an intoler-
able burden. Out of the West came rumours of revelation. In the first
Christian century a commission went in search of light. About the time
the Apostle Paul came to make Rome the centre of the Light of the World
these Chinese seekers found Buddhist bonzes who went to tell China of
the way to release. From other sources, too, came missionaries of the
Buddha. The story cannot here be told how Buddhism came, how it
pleased and repelled, how through patronage and persecution it came about

i8o THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

after six hundred years that the majority of Chinese added the Buddha
and his Boddhisatwas to their faith and their dependence for the leader-
ship on the long journey of escape through stages of hells and heavens into
the bliss of freedom from desire and every ill it entails.

Behind all these faiths were the primitive superstitions which all peoples
know, the ancestor worship so powerful in Chinese devotion and fear, the
national loyalty bound up with the name and teachings of the great Kung,
whose birthplace and tomb remain China's most sacred shrine. To these
must be added a persistent monotheistic note which haunted many a soul
and lurked in the background of all the process of men and gods in China,
whether under the name of Shang-ti, or the vaguer Ti'en, or implied in
the universal faith in the ideally perfect Tao which, if only a man could
know and walk in it, would make him an ideal man.

The course of human religion is along the ways of interaction between
aminism and monotheism struggling in man's experience and thought.
Nowhere outside Hebrew history and the Zoroastrian period of Persian
history is this struggle so obvious and so illuminating as in China. How
far there was interchange of thought and influence among the nations in
that marvellous sixth century B. c. of religious revival throughout Asia
and into Greece and Rome, no man can say. That God made then a wide
and notable revelation of Himself to men can hardly be questioned by any
one who believes at all in revelation. Equally impossible is it- to say how
far Hebrew religious insight carried its influence in the distribution of its
sons through captivities, migrations and travels; or to what extent Mo-
hammed's severe monotheism of Allah reinforced China's native idea of
Shang-ti. Nor can any one say to what extent the Christian interpreta-
tion of God and man penetrated China to influence her thought in pre-
Nestorian tim^s, in the two periods of Nestorian active missionary work
in China and in the two campaigns from Europe prior to 1800, and in-
fluenced her thought of God and of human duty and destiny. The belief
in sacrificial love of a personal God and human trust in Him alone for
redemption and hope, as set out in The Lotus Scripture, put into Chinese
in the third century, and The Awakening of Faith, translated in the sixth
century, are essentially Christian concepts. These works, widely popular
in some forms of Buddhism, may well have been influenced by Gnostic
and Manichean contacts which are known, and by more orthodox influences
which are probable. In any case, so great a scholar and missionary as
Timothy Richard a truly front-rank personality finds in these teachings
"The New Testament of Higher Buddhism" through which there was a
remarkable preparatio evangelica.

Still the modern missionary approached China after four organized efforts
to plant Christianity there, three of them complete failures so far as
permanent tangible results measure, and the fourth a success that was as
much a liability as an asset for the new campaign.

THE MODERN OPENING 0? CHINA

Before the missionary came, the courier of commerce was already knock-
ing at the door shut in the face of the foreigner. Most persistent and

CHINA 181

determined was the British merchant. Hejchafed. under '..the. heathens ..blind
conservatism. His Indian territories were developing, his trade in Malaysia
increasing. He needed new and enlarged markets, and especially for his
India-grown opium, which he preferred to see debauch the Chinese father
than his own subjects and wards. And Chinese were not wanting to help
him introduce the contraband poison. His European friends and enemies
alike were ready to help persuade the widening of the door of commerce or
to use other means for expanding trade.

When, in 1813, the functions of the East India Company were restricted
and England would take under her diplomatic service all political rela-
tions, she came at once into conflict with Chinese arrogance and intransi-
geance. Growing friction reached a climax when Chinese mobs dumped a
lot of contraband opium into the sea. War followed from 1839-42. When
it closed, the strategic island of Hong Kong was a British possession to
be beautifully developed into the foremost British Far Eastern -capital,
fortified in strength next to Gibraltar. To this day it commands the ap-
proach up the West River to Canton and dominates the in- and out-going
trade of all populous and progressive South China. All ocean-going car-
goes must tranship at Victoria, or at Kowloon, across the narrow strait
which Britain, in 1860, appropriated to enable her to handle the growing
volume of trade. Although the river is ample and harbour space along
the Bund abundant, Canton is not permitted to become a port of first in-
stance. Moreover, China was compelled to open for foreign trade and resi-
dence five of her chief cities.

These enlarged facilities suificed until the growing volume of trade
called for more. This time the French were in alliance with the British,
and many American business men were very sympathetic. China was still
too blind to see what was good for her, and must have a .second forcible
lesson. Occasion was found in the sinking of a Chinese junk chartered
by the British, rechristened the Arrow and manned with a Chinese crew
under British flag and command, and running a blockade with contraband.
The Chinese sunk her, as they were expected to do.

Enough for the purpose, and the "Arrow" War in two years brought
China to compulsory terms. But disagreement over the meaning of the
terms of the Treaty of Tientsin delayed the final settlement two years
longer, till 1860. Seven more important centres were now open to trade
and foreign residence, while three others were to be determined upon.
They proved to be Hankow, Kinkiang and Chingkiang. Besides freedom
of residence, ownership of property and conduct of trade in the fifteen
treaty ports, foreigners were now permitted to travel freely throughout
China; Peking would receive diplomatic representatives; Christianity would
be tolerated and its worshippers protected. When controversy arose over
the interpretation of the terms, British and French again appealed to
arms, destroyed the Taku fortifications, marched to Peking, which they
captured and sacked, and destroyed the imperial summer palace; exacted
higher indemnities than agreed upon in 1858, added Tientsin to the open
ports, the cession Kowloon to Great Britain. The French version of the
new treaty was found to contain permission " to French missionaries to

182 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

rent and purchase land in all the provinces and to erect buildings thereon
at pleasure." This clause was introduced by the priest who was interpreter
for the French. It was not in the Chinese copy of the treaty, and was
signed only because the Chinese were helpless.

The growing trade centres and expanding missionary residence multi-
plied contacts and occasions of friction, and the fear and resentment at
the increasing presence and influence of foreigners made repeated conflicts
inevitable. There were massacres at various points, most serious at Hankow
and at Tientsin, where French interference in behalf of Catholic missions
brought a crisis that for a time threatened the expulsion of all missionaries,
Catholic and Protestant.

In 1873, partly as an outcome of negotiations growing out of the fre-
quent outbreaks of violence during the preceding decade, China's Emperor
for the first time actually received a foreign minister in audience. Even
this was not accomplished without pressure. The reception was delayed some
months over questions of court etiquette, on which China was forced to yield.

By 1885, when the European powers had reached agreement among
themselves for the partition of Africa, their feverish outreach and rivalry
in empire building had begun seriously to threaten China's integrity.
Already the French were appropriating territory in Indo-China. The
doctrine of "spheres of influence" was growing in practice in China.
Agreements among Europeans and Japanese most seriously affecting China
were made without consulting her and with complete disregard of her
interests. Japan and Russia were pressing for advantage in the game of
trade and territorial advance, with China as the^ victim. Over age-old
controversy about their rights in Korea, China and Japan went to war in
1894-5. China's helplessness was laid bare to her own eyes. Outside
powers, including Japan, had taken possession of every deep-water har-
bour on China's long coast, had compelled "concessions" of land in each
port under foreign control, to the complete exclusion of the Chinese. The
United States had joined the rest in the claim of " extraterritoriality " and in
the management of China's financial policy in customs and in the use of taxes.

BOXER UPRISING: A NEW ERA FOR CHINA

A growing party in China, including the young Emperor, saw that
China's only hope lay in modernizing her education and economic life
along Western lines. The conservative element realized that if the old
order was to be saved and China was ever to deliver herself from the
greed of foreigners and the humiliation of foreign domination, the time
had come. The Boxer uprising of 1900 was a desperate effort after self-
assertion and autonomy.

When the Tai-pings fought against the Manchus for progress and for
Chinese self-government, the long and bloody war was brought to an end
in 1864 only with the help of a foreign army privately raised and com-
manded by an American, Ward, who on his death in battle was succeeded
by the notable General Gordon, who led "the Ever Victorious Army."
The foreigners had thus upheld the reactionary party, as the actual gov-
ernment. Iow, in 1900, it was this Manchu party, with the prestige and

CHINA 183

ability of the Empress Dowager, sweeping aside the Emperor and his progres-
sives, that defied all the foreigners in a blind and futile blow for freedom.

Yet the struggle was not without great advantages. The conscience of
Christendom was aroused and the nations were restrained in their reckless
disregard of China's rights. The impossibility of partitioning China with-
out a destruction of human life such as had never been perpetrated upon
any people was clear to all who would think. The United States, being
less involved, was able to see the wicked stupidity of the course of the
nations with China, and began a campaign of consideration and justice. In-
creasingly China herself saw the hopelessness of reaction, and entered upon
the path of progress. It is a path that must take her far, through tragic
experiences; but it is the only way; it may be the sure way. China had been
playing the impossible role of_an ancient nation in a modern world.

Once having set her back upon the past, in which she had gloried
through millenniums, China soon found no room for Manchu rulers. The
Revolution, which Sun Yat-sen had been fostering for a quarter of a cen-
tury, came with startling precipitancy in 1911; The setting up of a "Re-
public" in 1912 was premature, and it has had a distressing history thus
far, but a course that makes progress even through its tragedies. From
now on the progressives must rule. To succeed, they must have friendly
relations with the Western peoples and as far as possible with the West-
ern nations. The dominant attitude has wholly changed on both sides.
The dependence of the new order for its origin and success on ideas that
came out of the Christian West is freely recognized by many of the re-
sponsible leaders. Asked when the revolutionary movement began, one
Chinese statesman replied: "The day Robert Morrison landed in Canton."
In a crisis, the Acting Government made a formal appeal to Christians
throughout China to set apart April 27, 1913, as a day of prayer for the
young Republic.

Drawn into the World War on the side of the Allies, China hopefully
expected to win, in the peace conferences and treaties, some definite resto-
ration of national prerogatives taken from her through the century's events.
Her disappointment was great. She now entered upon a definite cam-
paign for the peaceful recovery of her financial autonomy, the restoration
of "concession" areas in all her cities and the abolition of extraterri-
toriality. The Washington Conference of 1922 gave real encouragement
in the campaign, as America's friendliness seemed assured. Then, in 1925,
came the "Shanghai Incident," when British police fired upon a crowd of
strikers and students before the prison, killing some. It precipitated an
extremely delicate crisis and fired China with a determined unity such
as had never previously existed. The British Home Government main-
tained remarkable steadiness, resisted all clamour for any except the most
necessary show of force. The conscience of the world was awakened in
China's cause as never before. The gradually growing demand within
Christendom for the application of Christian principles to all international
and interracial relations has become insistent. China, far more than India,
has brought to consciousness this demand of Christianity, for the reason
that all the major nations are directly involved in the Chinese complications.

184 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The changed attitude which followed the Boxer trouble may be said to have
come to clear definition in the 1925 crisis. This is an unspeakable gain for
the hope of the world and for Christianity as the religious hope of humanity.
We can now look back and see how every great advance in China's
modern world relationships has been forced upon her, and that the mis-
sionary movement has ridden in upon the armaments that have compelled
the opening. Again, the foreigners have compelled China to pay for each
war, which was a new lesson in progress, and in addition has exacted
heavy punitive indemnity as additional penalty for her stupidity in not
accepting the lessons without force. Then China's reluctance and resent-
ment have given occasion for foreigners to claim that she was incompe-
tent to meet her obligations, and so to take over the administration of her
finances in order to guarantee the payment of indemnities. Under these
conditions it was cynical irony to tell China that so soon as she manifests
her capacity to administer her affairs according to enlightened standards
her autonomy will be restored. At length China demands autonomy in
order that she may order her house in modern style. It is simple truth
to say that in* Evangelical Christianity lies China's hope of being per-
mitted to do this, and equally China's hope of being able to do this. It
is the influence of Evangelical Christianity that constrains the nations to
justice and friendliness, and Evangelical Christianity that has awakened
the soul of China and can guide in the freeing of that soul. Progress
depends upon understanding the factors that make for progress.

MODERN MISSIONS .

The progress of modern missions in China falls into certain periods.
The first begins with the arrival of Robert Morrison, in 1807. It is a
period of preparatory waiting for the way to open. With the ratification
of the Nanking Treaty, hi 1842, begins a period of beginnings which ex-
tends to 1860, when a period of relatively rapid expansion ensues. The
Boxer uprising, in 1900, marks a distinct turning-point in China's attitude,
and thus in missionary opportunity. This, a period of awakening, leads to
1922, when the formation of the China Christian Council introduces an
era of the growing Indigenous Church.

I. PERIOD 0? PREPARATORY WAITING

The file leader of Evangelical Missions is Robert Morrison. Appointed
by the London Missionary Society in 1804, he began the study of Chinese
in London. The East India Company refused passage, and he went out
via the United States, whence he carried a friendly letter from Mr. Madi-
son, the Secretary of State, to the American Consul. Barred out of China
as a foreigner, his mission opposed by the only British authority there,
and with the Portuguese settlement in Macao dominated . by the Jesuit
influence, the new missionary found himself in need of every resource
under God. For twenty-seven years he laboured until his death, in 1834^
with but one visit home. As a wise master-builder, he laid a foundation
secure for future builders. Within two years the antagonistic East India
Company required his services as interpreter and translator. He accepted

CHINA 185

on terms that left him free to do missionary work and with a salary which
made him financially independent of the home society and enabled him to
expend very considerable sums on the work. This position also gave him
access to the foreigners, some of whom he enlisted and led into living
helpful in the Christian preparation.

His first care was for the language, and for the Scriptures in Chinese.
Already Marshman, at Serampore, was working at this, and produced his
New Testament in 1811, two years ahead of Morrison. Morrison and
Milne had the entire Bible ready in 1819.

The London Society sent a number of men and women within this period,
five of whom were still employed in 1832. It was seven years before
Morrison baptized his first convert, and there were not more than ten up
to his death. Among these was Liang A-f ah, the first ordained evangelist,
a man of ability and devotion, who could work in Canton when foreigners
could not. He was eminently useful, and a memorial pillar fitly marks the
grave to which his bones were, long after his death, removed, on the campus
of Lingnam University.

Morrison's first recruits, Reverend and Mrs. William Milne, were not
allowed to remain in either Macao or Canton. Chinese emigrants were
already numerous in Java, Malacca, Borneo and elsewhere in the Straits Set-
tlements and in the Philippines. Here was an opening. To these the Milnes
went, and most of the missionaries of all boards in this period had to cor/tent
themselves with work among Chinese in these regions. Malacca was a
sort of first British Far Eastern capital. Here Morrison encouraged the
opening of a school which soon came to be the Anglo-Chinese College. Here
also was the mission printing press, although Morrison's Bible was printed
on the East India Company's press at Macao, and the company even met
the heavy costs of his grammar and his enormous dictionary.

The London Society, in 1817, began work in Mongolia, where several
missionaries translated the Bible and won a few converts before the work
was closed by the Russian Government in 1841.

The Bible Society became interested in China from its origin, but it was
1836 before its first agent, Lay, located in Macao. In the same year the
Church Missionary Society sent its first representative, but he failed to
establish himself. Two years earlier this society had appropriated three
hundred pounds for the work of Gutzlaff, whom the Netherlands Society
had sent, in 1827, to Batavia. He was a man of great linguistic ability,
determination, resourcefulness and faith. After a few years in the Straits
regions he went to China and adopted the method of colportage by boat,
making easy evasion of Chinese prohibitions. His labours extended as far
north as Tientsin. He succeeded Morrison in the employ of the British
and plays a notable role in the next period.

The American Bible Society began aiding in Bible distribution in the
early twenties, and paid a salary to Liang A-fah. In 1829, D. W. C.
Olyphant, the Boston merchant on whose ship Morrison had sailed, gave
free passage to the first two American missionaries, both of them to make
names for their service. DavidjAJDeel went to minister as chaplain to
American sailors in Chinese waters. His interest led him back to China

i86 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

in 1842 as missionary of the American Board. Forced home in 1845 by
ill health, he was outstanding in advocacy of missions and influential in
bringing about the Woman's Union Missionary Society in 1860.

Elijah C. Bridgman, the American Board's first missionary, began a
boys' school in Canton, and in 1832 opened publication of The Chinese
Repository, to become highly useful in interesting foreigners in China.
The board sent others, among them the famous Sinologue, S. Wells Wil-
liams, who went out as a printer; and Peter Parker to be the first medical
missionary to Chinese, 1834. Surgeons of the East India Company had
given some aid and instruction to the Chinese, and Dr. Colledge had in
true Christian concern conducted a dispensary for Chinese in Macao. Now,
after experience in Singapore, in 1835 Parker inaugurated medical mis-
sionary work, won confidence and led on to the Canton Christian Hospital,
which for nearly a century has blessed China.

The American Baptists had J. T. Jones go on in 1833 from Burma to
Bangkok, where he baptized four Chinese ; and a Chinese church was organ-
ized there by William Dean in 1835. In 1836, J. Lewis Shuck and wife
came as the first Baptists in China, and I. J. Roberts arrived a year later,
sent by a special organization in Kentucky, but soon to join the Shucks
under the Baptist Board. American Episcopalians sent two able men to
Canton in 1835, but their stay was brief. Their work and that of the per-
manent founder of Episcopal missions in China, Boone, in this period was in
Singapore and Batavia. Just at the end of this period two sons of Walter
Lowrie, distinguished secretary of the newly constituted Presbyterian Board,
came to Singapore and were ready when China would admit them.

Thus in the first period Protestant evangelism was chiefly among Chinese
outside China. The total number of converts was fewer than a hundred,
and barely ten in China itself. A splendid beginning had been made for a
Christian literature, with the Bible for its cornerstone. Schools already
constituted the beginnings of Christian education, so important for a land
where not more than one man in a hundred could read and not one woman
in a thousand. Medical missions had founded a hospital in Canton and
had made small beginnings in the use of scientific means and knowledge
in dealing with smallpox, malaria and other diseases where the millions
had depended on placating or outwitting demons. Missionary organiza-
tions of Great Britain, the United States and Holland had already small
forces, trained and experienced, ready for the opportunity when it eould
be made, and others were eagerly awaiting the hour. In Canton itself the
few missionaries had taken the lead in interesting foreigners and a few
sympathetic Chinese in co-operation for the common good. " The Chris-
tian Union of Canton," and a " Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge" did good, even though they did not perpetuate themselves.
" The Morrison Education Society " was a most appropriate means of
honouring him. At its organization, in 1835, a fund of a thousand pounds
enabled it at once to begin assisting the education of Chinese youth. Shortly
it had its own school headed by Samuel R. Brown, brought from America
as teacher. In its ten years (1839-49) it trained Yung Wing, who later
graduated from an American college (the first Chinese to do this) and

CHINA 187

turned out to be a great factor in educating Chinese in modern learning.
He was chiefly responsible for the Chinese Educational Commission, which
sent scores of students to the United States. Here also studied Wong Fun,
later the first Chinese to graduate in modern medicine, taking his degree
at Edinburgh.

The Medical Missionary Society in China (1838), "to assist medical
service undertaken gratuitously for the Chinese," was promoted by Col-
ledge, Parker, Lay, Bridgman, Jardine and others. It assisted hospitals in
both Macao and Canton, and procured endowments enabling them modestly
to keep going during the serious disorders of the already imminent war.

If the Jesuit Father Valignani, about 1580, "looking one day out of a
window of the College of Macao" toward closed and unwilling China,
"called out with a loud -voice . . . ' Oh, Rock, Rock, when wilt thou
open ! ' " these evangelical missionaries in 1839, with expectant souls, were
striking the Rock with the rod of loving helpfulness and commanding it in
the name of Christ to open.

II. PERIOD OF OCCUPATION

The Treaty of Nanking ceded Hong. Kong to Great Britain and opened
to foreign residence and trade Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and
Shanghai; provided that foreigners accused of crime should be tried under
the laws and officials of their own nation, while foreign plaintiffs knight
appeal to their own officials to see that justice was done in Chinese courts ;
abrogated the prohibition of teaching the language to foreigners; agreed
that privileges granted to any one of " the most favoured nations " would
be extended to all; stipulated that foreigners found outside the treaty ports
should be arrested and turned over to their nearest consul.

CATHOLICS

The French, in the interest of Catholic missions, and America, in the
interest of Protestants and Catholics, stipulated in their treaties that for-
eigners might build in the treaty ports houses, hospitals, schools and places
of worship. Religion was not specifically mentioned, the French having
failed to get a toleration clause inserted. The envoy did succeed in getting
edicts proclaimed in 1844 and '46 extending further favours to Catholics.

Interest in China missions had greatly revived in Catholic Europe, and
new missionaries began to arrive in 1836. The land was reallocated under
a new scheme of vicarates. New organizations entered, those already at
work increased their numbers, support greatly increased, while the French
Government acted as advocate and protector. Always going the limits of
treaty concessions, these missions were almost constantly transcending
them. The result was frequent legal conflicts, persecutions, friction. Still
it meant penetrating new areas and spreading a somewhat irregular and
tangled network of Catholic missions over the whole of China; and after
the Arrow War there was rapid increase in the membership of the churches.
The immediate occasion for the French joining with the British in the
War of 1856-60 was the judicial murder, in 1856, of a French priest in
Kwangsi Province, of course far beyond treaty rights.

i88 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The T'ai Ping Rebellion, running through fifteen years in all (1848-
1864), had for its head a man Hung Hsui Ch'uan whose visions had
resulted in originating a new religious sect calling themselves " The Wor-
shippers of Shang-ti," preaching repentance, administering baptism, de-
stroying idols. A writing of Liang A-fah had had certainly some part in
Hung's visions which inspired the movement and from which he professed
to have been commissioned of God and identified by Jesus as a younger
brother. I. J. Roberts, the Baptist missionary, had had him in his home
for two brief periods and was later in some relation of instructor and
advisor in Hung's family. All this gave a sort of Christian colouring to
the Rebellion, which grew to such proportions that it all but succeeded in
overthrowing the Manchus.

For the most part, the operations of this war were in territory not yet
attempted by Protestants, but extensively penetrated by Catholic mission-
aries. Until its last stages, when the foreigners came to the aid of the
rulers, it was easy for Chinese authorities to connect the rebels with foreign
influence and religion. Thus Catholics suffered much persecution and
interference with their work, a large part of which was in any case tech-
nically beyond the law.

PROTESTANT ADVANCE

On their part, Protestants made a rush to seize the opportunities made
by the_ Opium War. They did not wait for formal treaty signing. The
societies already at work among Chinese transferred to Hong Kong and
the five open ports some of their workers in the -various Straits regions
and hurried recruits from the home lands. Other organizations began at
once to occupy the new stations. The London Society was among the
foremost. Legge had become Principal of the Anglo-Chinese College only
in 1840. In 1843 he brought the college with him to Hong Kong and
changed it into a training college for a Chinese clergy. Besides this famous
translator of the Classics and editor of The Sacred Books of the East, the
London Society brought on Joseph Edkins, 1848, Griffith John, 1855, along
with many others. They spread widely, occupying at once three of the
five ports and pressing into the regions around them.

If American Congregationalists were somewhat behind their British breth-
ren, it was because they were just then expanding their work in other
countries. They were, moreover, labouring among Chinese in America and
following them up on their return to China.

American Presbyterians, first setting up their own board distinct from
the American Board, in 1837, were just ready for the new challenge. Their
first station was Ning-po, in 1844, where they claim the first Protestant
church organized on Chinese soil, 1845. Besides the Lowrie brothers, the
Presbyterians sent many who became distinguished in missionary labours
and leadership and in scholarship. John L. Nevius came in 1854, later
to be so prominent in the Shantung missions and also advisor in the open-
ing of Presbyterian work in Korea, where the policies that have proved
so successful were largely determined by him. Dr. W. A. P. Martin
arrived in 1850, to become one of the best interpreters of China to the

CHINA 189

West. Dr. John Kerr, as head of the hospital in Canton, inaugurated care
of the insane in China.

English Presbyterians initiated their foreign mission work by sending
to China, in 1847, William C. Burns, an able, eccentric, wandering mis-
sionary, who nevertheless laid good foundations, and especially inculcated
self-support. In his twenty years he laboured in and itinerated from Amoy,
Swatow and Peking, and was headed for Manchuria when he died, in 1866.
He" exercised a strong influence over J. Hudson Taylor in his first period
in China.

The American Episcopal Church determined to make Shanghai its base
and the lower Yangtze Valley its field. Their work was supervised by
Boone, consecrated Bishop in 1844, until 1864. A school for boys, opened
about 1851, was to develop into St. John's College. The Church Mission-
ary Society laboured in South China, but its aggressive period begins ^with
the coming of G. E. Moule, in 1857, to be followed by his brother, Arthur
E., both to become distinguished missionaries in Central China with Hankow
as the centre.

American Baptists were already on the ground, and sent other mission-
aries, by 1856 occupying four of the ports. On their division, in 1845,
Southern Baptists developed work in Canton and Shanghai, while North-
ern Baptists developed Ning-po. Besides Shuck, who was pioneer in
Canton, Ning-po and Shanghai, Southern Baptists had sent, in this period,
R. H. Graves to Canton (1857), and ta Shanghai Matthew T. Yates
(1847) and T. P. Crawford (1852), who proved to be missionaries of the
highest usefulness. English Baptists sought to open work in Chefoo in 1858,
by taking over two missionaries of the Chinese Evangelization Society, but
suffered disasters and defeat until the coming of Timothy Richard, in 1870.

American Methodists, taking up foreign missions late, were divided over
the slavery question in 1846, then in a few years hindered by the Civil
War. The Northern branch began in Foochow, in 1847, tne Southern in
Shanghai, in 1848, the English Wesleyans in Canton, hi 1853. None of
these achieved much until after 1860.

Gutzlaff, working in Hong Kong, elaborated a pretentious scheme for
evangelizing China largely through Chinese workers. He enlisted in it
the German organizations, then, on a tour of Germany, hi 1849-50, aroused
great enthusiasm and gained large support by his accounts of his Chinese
workers and their successes, backed by reports from these workers. In
his absence from China it was revealed that his Chinese evangelists and
other workers were nearly all rank imposters and their glowing reports of
baptisms, new stations and eager seekers fictitious. He had been grossly
deceived. He died in 1851. The German societies remained in China and
developed their own methods and work.

It is not possible to give even the names of the numerous minor organiza-
tions that by 1860 had undertaken to carry the Gospel to the Chinese.
Results were slow at first, but foundations were being laid, methods learned,
experience gained. By 1850 not more than one hundred had been baptized;
by 1860 only about one thousand were in all the churches. Protestants had
preached in only six of the eighteen provinces.

190 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

in. PERIOD of EXPANSION, 1860-1900

China continued in a state of bewilderment, borne along on a current the
direction and meaning of which most Chinese had little idea. The ignorant
masses knew little of what was going on, although the number of those who
were finding out grew rapidly in the last two decades of the century.

The Christian churches were largely aroused to the meaning of their
opportunity, although it was only the leaders who came to see that Chris-
tianity was in China facing the greatest single opportunity and test that
had ever come to her, or could ever come. Either Christianity must suc-
ceed in China or, failing there, be proved unequal to redeeming humanity.
The full force of that challenge is perhaps only now being realized.

We have seen that most of the denominations had made beginnings in
China before 1860. All others of any importance came in now, and several
extra-denominational organizations were formed with special reference to
China, chief of these being the China Inland Mission. The older bodies
pressed with what eagerness they might to share in giving the Gospel to
at least some of China's millions.

By 1860 the Catholics had congregations with missionary and native
priests in at least seventeen of the eighteen provinces, and a total member-
ship of approximately a quarter of a million. By 1900 the membership had
somewhat more than doubled. While there had been definite increase in
native priesthood, both in numbers and in preparation and in training, the
authority remained with the missionaries, and Catholicism was still a dis-
tinctly foreign religion. The French continued to be the champion and
protector of the missionaries of all nationalities. Priests regularly assumed
or claimed civil status. In 1898 the demand was reluctantly granted, ranking
a bishop with a governor, and so through the hierarchy and the civil system.
Fortunately, the Episcopal churches had the wisdom not to claim this ar-
rangement. The attitude of the French and of the priesthood was respon-
sible for an almost unbroken series of irritating incidents, involving
destruction of property, the pressing of claims for indemnities, occasional
loss of lives, the serious Tientsin massacres of 1870, extending to other
places. Through it all the priests pursued their ministrations; the Orders
increased their forces, new Orders came to share the work; convents were
introduced, as was previously impossible, and many nuns gave devoted
service along various lines and in many sections. The workers came from
all the European countries not yet many from the United States. In part,
these missions were financed by accumulating lands in China, loans and
business investments. Apparently more attention than formerly was given
to caring for the .converts, and there was advance in moral standards.
Schools were multiplied, but continued to be chiefly for their own con-
stituency, and especially for the priesthood and catechists. The multitu-
dinous organizations of priests and monks laboured with no little confusion
of overlapping, due to the lack of orderly supervision. This fault was dealt
with by the Propaganda, and improvement made in administration.

Evangelical churches and organizations were ready to take advantage
of the opportunities of political pressure and military force. There were
few at that time to see any impropriety in leaning on the secular power

CHINA 191

for support in spiritual tasks. Missionaries in Shanghai formally requested
Lord Elgin to procure toleration for Protestants distinct from that of the
Catholics gained through French mediation. S. Wells Williams and W.
A. P. Martin, acting as interpreters for the American envoy, successfully
urged him, against his judgment and wish and over Chinese protest, to
insert in the new American treaty a clause providing that citizens of the
United States and Chinese converts might "peaceably teach and practice
the principles of Christianity," and "in no case be interfered with or
molested;" L,atourette charges that "The Church had become a partner
in Western imperialism and could not well disavow some responsibility
for the consequences." While the responsibility lies far more heavily on
the Catholic Church, whose "missionaries exercised almost the authority
of civil officials over their converts," he cannot wholly exempt the Prot-
estants from blame for at least a small part in producing "the political
disintegration that marked the beginning of the twentieth century," which
led logically to " the anarchy of the third decade."

A WAVE OF MISSIONARY ENTHUSIASM

After the upheavals in Europe, around 1870, the spirit of expansion
stirred in all countries and was felt hi the missionary enthusiasm. Great
Britain was prospering by reason of the industrial revolution, and was
touching most parts of the earth in her rapidly growing Empire; and
the churches were sharing in the prosperity and were stirred with a
passion for Christian world "conquest," which was the thought form of
the day.

In the United States, after the reaction from the Civil War, there were
notable religious movements, and rapid expansion of world traile, all of
which encouraged following jup the successes attending most missionary
work. The Moody-Sankey revivals and related movements stirred religious
zeal. The rapid growth of the Young Men's Christian Association, fol-
lowed by the Young Women's Christian Association, and especially the
rise of the Student Volunteers, the Christian Endeavour and the denomi-
national organizations for young people all had strong missionary aspects.
Colleges and seminaries were fired by the missionary passion; and China
offered the most romantic field for its expression. The "Oberlin Band"
was the first to open a school mission, beginning in Shansi, in 1881, and
sending sixteen to man it by 1900. Yale, Harvard, Princeton and others
followed later.

Expansion by means of itineration and the location of new stations, with
the oral preaching of the Gospel and the winning of individual converts,
was the first concern through this period. The success was gratifying.
By the end of the century no province was wholly unoccupied, and pioneer-
ing spirits had gone into Manchuria and. Mongolia. Altogether, not fewer
than five thousand missionaries arrived in China during the period. Cer-
tainly a considerable number had brief terms, but not a few were to spend
half a century and more of devoted labour. Somewhat more than half
these had gone from Great Britain; Europe had furnished less than five
per cent, with America supplying the rest. Evangelical work was now

192 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

reported from four hundred and ninety-eight stations. The communicant
membership was not much less than one hundred thousand, and growing
rapidly. From 1853 to 1893 it rose from three hundred and fifty to fifty-five
thousand and ninety-three.

Most of the organizations put evangelistic work foremost in their pro-
grammes. Some organizations came forward for this special purpose. Far
the most significant of these was the China Inland Mission, which began
in 1866 with the definite objective of entering all the twelve unoccupied
provinces. It pressed forward nobly and heroically in this, and in about
twenty years had located stations in all, not however in some of them until
others had entered. It continues its great emphasis on evangelism.

The largest significance of evangelical missions for China in the nine-*
teenth century is by no means indicated in tables of converts, communicants
and churches. They were changing the trend of the national life, replacing
ideals, undermining outworn social institutions and laying the foundations
for new institutions. Secular contacts and influences were working might-
ily for change. These were, however, self-seeking in motive, exploiting in
method and irritating in effect. Christian missions were unselfishly intro-
ducing a new spirit and working for the good of the Chinese people and
nation. They had the effect of tempering the political and commercial
impacts and of introducing to the Chinese mind spiritual resources and
ideals which they had not known.

MISSIONARY EDUCATION

It was the evangelical schools which slowly brought China to the sur-
render of the system of classical education, so impossible in a progressive
world, and to the adoption of modern education. Not only did the mission
schools demonstrate their value and provide models for the new system,
but missionaries organized and directed the beginnings of the new order
and the graduates of the mission schools made possible the carrying on of
the new system and also became the leaders in the reorganization of the
New China's political and economic structure. There had never been in
China a school for girls, either public or private, save very rare cases of
limited instruction in homes which daughters of friends might be invited to
share, until these were introduced by Protestant missionaries.

It was missions, too, that gave the idea, the impetus and the beginnings
of a new literature and provided most of the printing presses, until the
values of these had so impressed Chinese as to cause them to adopt and
develop their own.

Modern medicine, surgery, hygiene and sanitation in China are a direct
gift of Christianity through its missions and the help they enlisted. The
care of the insane, lepers, orphans and other helpless and defectives was
almost unknown in China apart from Christianity, and most of this awaited
the Protestants for its introduction.

If in the beginning these indirect and general blessings of the Christian
movement were primarily intended to serve the missionary interests and
the Christian communities, they came more and more to be consciously
aimed at the need and the help of the entire people. In any case, they

CHINA 193

are all necessary elements in the planting of Christianity in the life of
any people. Ignorance, superstition, cruelty, slavery; suppression of women,
neglect of children, the blind, the sick, lepers; lust and licentiousness all
find in Christianity a natural enemy, and their victims find in Christian
workers active friends. All this became more and more evident as the
missionary work expanded and grew in its first century in China. Educa-
tional missions were greatly increased after 1860, and continued to expand
through this period, Americans leading in this and using the models they
knew best. High schools came extensively into use, and colleges began,
at least with ambitious and prophetic names. In the important missionary
conference in 1877, Mateer stated J:he purposes of Christian education as
(i) to provide a native ministry; (2) to train Chinese teachers for Chris-
tian schools which would lead on to "the superior education of the West;'*
(3) to prepare men to "lead in introducing to China the science and arts of
Western civilization ;" (4) to " give the native church self-reliance."

Timothy Richard was one of the most far-seeing missionaries in the
matter of a comprehensive programme. He insisted that the aim should
always look to the whole people and all aspects of their life. He was not
able in 1885 to gain support of his home society for his idea for a college,
either in Shantung or Shansi. Later, in the Boxer adjustments, hi which
he represented Shansi, he was able to procure the use of an " indemnity "
fund to found a Chinese university, over which he "was given full con-
trol . . . for .ten years." The remarkable Russian Jewish Episcopal Bishop
Schereschewsky brought about the founding of St. John's College, Shang-
hai, in 1879, which was doing full college work before 1900. Northern
Methodists opened in Nanking (1889) and Peking (1890) institutions,
called at once universities, which were destined to become union Christian
schools of true university rank. That in Peking was doing work of stand-
ard college grade in the last few years of the century. After ten years
of planning and effort, the Presbyterians were able to open the Canton
Christian College and to have twenty-two students pursuing collegiate and
theological studies. This was in the next period to grow into a union
college, and then into the Chinese controlled lyingnam University. The
Congregationalists expanded their high school at Tungchow into the North
China College, in 1889.

Conference over educational needs furthered co-operation. In 1890 there
was formed The Educational Association of China for "the promotion of
"educational interests in China and the fraternal co-operation of those
engaged in teaching."

Medical missions, we have seen, were almost the first form of Chris-
tian service tolerated in Canton. In the period 1860-1900 this form of
work greatly expanded, and many able physicians served in it. Women
physicians came in considerable numbers, the first being Dr. Combs, in
Peking, 1873. Before 1900 Chinese physicians educated abroad were joining
in the work, and these included at least four women, two of whom became
heads of hospitals and won distinction. It is significant that three of the
four were daughters of Chinese Christian ministers.

Medical education had also begun in China. There was a considerable

i 9 4 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

volume of medical literature produced for use of Chinese. Private instruc-
tion was given, and training in connection with hospitals. Then, about
1880, Dr. John Mackenzie opened, in Tientsin, the first medical school.
This he was able to do by reason of funds given and procured by 14
Hung-Chang and his wife, out of gratitude for Mackenzie's successful
treatment of a serious illness of Mrs. Li. Another medical college was
opened in Hong Kong, in 1886. Throughout this period medical work was
looked upon chiefly as an instrument of evangelization, but was so extensively
employed as to have at least a physician in almost every large mission station.
With this barest of outlines of growth during forty years, we must pass
to the next stage. Dr. Latourette has well said : " The treaties of 1858 and
1860, then, helped to make possible the foreign penetration of China by
Occidental culture. In the treaty ports foreign communities arose, partly
missionary, partly official, but chiefly commercial, and from them irradi-
ated influences which within fifty years were to bring about a startling
alteration in all phases of Chinese life. From 1860 to 1898 there was
little rapid outward change in China or in her relations with Occidental
culture. During these decades, however, the empire was being quietly
honeycombed, and under the ever accumulating pressure from without its
resistance was finally to crumble."

IV. PERIOD OF AWAKENED CHINA, IQOO-I922

Up to this point Christianity has offered its Christ and His benefits to
an unwilling and resisting China. This must not be taken to mean that
there has been any forcing of Christian faith upon unwilling proselytes.
That is an all too frequent slander of the missionary motive and method.
Intelligent people should know that the missionary carries good news only
to willing ears and shares its high values with willing recipients, although
the benefits overflow inevitably upon just and unjust, even its enemies
profiting by his ministrations. There have all along been more timid
seekers and secret believers, deterred from open acceptance of the Christian
faith by social and civil restraint, than there were followers who came for
material advantage or from over-persuasion. From the first, political and
commercial exploiters have been quick to interpret every crisis in China
as an anti-Christian uprising, due to religious resentment, hoping in this
way to divert attention from their own wrongs, which were the real causes
of opposition. From this point onward we deal with a China increasingly
receptive to the Christian message, and especially to the Christian benefits;
a China led increasingly by those who know the need for changing the form
of their life, and welcome every help in the difficult task.

Missionaries, being so widely disposed throughout China, having gener-
ally so many Chinese friends and being inclined to confidence because of
their benevolent purpose, suffered greatly at the hands of the Boxers.
Chinese Christians naturally were victims of the uprising because of their
connection with foreigners and of their efforts to protect the missionaries
in a time when it was endeavoured to root out every foreign thing. The
Roman Catholics seem to have lost forty-seven missionaries, including five
bishops, while Catholic natives were slain in numbers estimated at above

CHI&A 195

thirty thousand. The sufferings were most severe in Shensi, Mongolia,
Manchuria, Chili and Hupeh Provinces. The Russian mission was small,
with only some seven hundred members, a third or more of whom were
killed and all their property destroyed. Protestants lost fewer than two
hundred authorities differ the Chinese Recorder reported one hundred
and eighty-six, including fifty-two children. The China Inland Mission
had suffered much more than any other body. Of Protestant Christians,
the average of estimates is about two thousand. While some yielded to
the pressure and denied the faith, the heroism and loyalty were such as to
silence forever intelligent talk of "rice Christians," so far as the vast
majority was concerned.

China was completely humiliated and ready for leadership. Yet the
outrages perpetrated by the allied armies in relief of the Siege of Peking
and some serious injustices in the imposition of excessive indemnities
tended to discredit the religion of these "Christian" nations. On the
whole, the receptivity of Chinese far surpassed any previous attitude.

The historic civil examinations based on the classics were abolished in
the cities where Boxer violence had raged, for a period of five years, by
terms of the treaties. By that time the educational revolution had ad-
vanced to the point where these were for the most part no longer desired.
The new treaties expressly provided for freedom of missionary work and
of native Christianity, while also they carried a needed provision that no
Christian was relieved of taxes or duties as a citizen by reason of church
membership or in any way exempt from penalties for crimes.

There was a great rush for study of Western learning, and of students
going abroad for study. When, at the suggestion, it is said, of Dr. A. H.
Smith, about half the American Boxer indemnity fund was returned and
devoted to scholarships for Chinese students in the United States and a
preparatory college Tsing Hwa to fit them for this, they came by hun-
dreds annually. There was multiplication of mission schools of all grades
to try to cope with the new demands. The emphasis was on "middle
schools," but colleges increased from six to fourteen in six years, from
1900 to 1906, and the number continued to grow until a new policy was
adopted. The demands for all kinds of education produced great problems.
There was great advance in scientific curricula, in medicine, teacher training
and in theological education. Most of the denominations either strength-
ened what they had or built colleges, if they had not previously done so.
The co-operative institutions already begun made rapid progress, and new
undertakings were opened, notably Shantung Christian University and the
West China Union University, in Chengtu, Boone University, in Hankow,
Shanghai Baptist College and Seminary.

Medical education, making rapid advances, came into a new era when,
in 1914, the Rockefeller Medical Board was formed and undertook to pro-
mote a modern medical system in China. In close co-operation with the
medical missionary work the board promoted a number of projects, chief
of which was the Peking Union Medical College, which it fostered from
1917 onward, into one of the chief medical-hospital-colleges in all the
world.

196 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

NEW PI,ANS tfOR NEW PROBLEMS

The complex of problems of a new student group in China unrestrained
and unguided by traditions and precedents gave much concern. The Young
Men's Christian Association, Young Women's Christian Association, Vol-
unteer Movement joined with the missions in the effort to serve this
great force and to conserve it for China's progress and for the Christian-
izing of China. The China Inland Mission had from the beginning pro-
vided for training its recruits for a time in China before employing them
in work. From this example, and to meet a growing need for better train-
ing grew the language schools, notably in Nanking and Canton, in connec-
tion with the universities, and in Peking the separate North China Union
Language School, splendidly developed from 1912 under the lead of Mr.
William B. Pettus.

The number of communicant Christians grew from about one hundred
thousand in 1900 to approximately two hundred thousand by the Centenary
Conference, 1907. By 1922 there were four hundred and two thousand five
hundred and thirty-nine. This truly wonderful growth should be kept in
mind when one hears of the failure or unpopularity of missions in China.

The assembling of five hundred delegates in the Centenary Conference,
in Shanghai, 1907, besides six hundred and seventy visitors and representa-
tives of the home boards, was most heartening to missionaries and home
constituencies. The review of achievements, the joint consideration of
plans and methods, the sense of fellowship and the plans for co-operation
and federation all gave courage to the workers and were impressive on
Chinese. There was a strength, a unity and a hopefulness in the- Christian
movement in China which none had before realized. Perhaps some of the
steps taken at this conference looking toward federation and union were
unwise; they were certainly premature.

The five regional conferences and the one national conference of the
Edinburgh Conference Continuation Committee, held by Dr. John Mott,
resulted in the formation of what was intended to be a permanent China
Continuation Committee. It at once engaged two full-time secretaries, an
American and a Chinese, and the next year added Dr. A. L. Warnshuis as
National Evangelistic Secretary. The plans were again too elaborate for
the time, and some of them unwise. The World War interfered. Yet steps
were leading on to a larger unity, and efficiency was promoted.

Extensive evangelistic campaigns, both for students and in connection
with the churches, were organized by the Young Men's Christian Associ-
ation and by the Continuation Committee. As early as 1905, Dr. Johnathan
Goforth came into* prominence in evangelistic leadership, to continue to the
present. First in Honan, then in Manchuria, then in Shantung and else-
where his work was remarkably blessed, with some regrettable emotional
excesses. In 1913, General Feng was converted in one of Dr. Mott's
noted meetings, later to unite with the Methodist Church and then to
become noted as " the Christian General," encouraging and personally lead-
ing in evangelization and Christian training in his armies, until more than
thirty thousand of his troops were open Christians. In the political cross-
currents his Christianity fell under suspicion, he became at least infected

CHINA 197

with Communism, was excommunicated, but continued to profess his loyalty
to Christ. Since 1926 he has figured little as a Christian influence. Young
Men's Christian Association meetings for students, under lead of Brock-
man, Gailey and others, exerted tremendous influence. A conference, in
1919, to consider how "the Christian Church can best help China," re-
sulted in a "China for Christ Movement," ably led by Z. T. Yui in a
comprehensive programme of education, training, Christian living and
evangelism.

Roman Catholics pushed forward with great vigour and gains from the
beginning of this period. In 1908, the Pope changed the classification of
the United States and Great Britain from missionary countries under
supervision of the Propaganda and created a new classification for them.
This fact, added to the aggressive Knights of Columbus organization,
which probably had much to do with the action, placed upon Catholics in
this country responsibility and a measure of autonomy previously lacking.
They responded nobly to the challenge to share in the world extension
programme of their church. Previously only a very few missionaries had
gone to China from the United States, now numerous organizations, both
monks and nuns, took up the work and their missionaries have rapidly in-
creased. At the same time systematic methods have produced large income
for financial support. The Propaganda devised schemes for reorganizing and
reallocating the various working groups, and took much more detailed
pains in unifying their efforts. For the first time in their history in China,
they definitely undertook to give to their church a measure of national
consciousness. Chinese priests were consecrated in increasing numbers,
and their training carried to a high degree of efficiency. At the same
time educational opportunities for various classes were increased beyond
previous times, yet keeping their schools chiefly for their own constitu-
ency. Nor did they engage in medical and other social work to any such
extent as did the Protestants. China is at present their most important
mission country. Their increase was rapid. For 1901 the Propaganda
reported a baptized membership of seven hundred and twenty thousand five
hundred and forty. In eleven years this increased to one million four hun-
dred and thirty-one thousand six hundred and eighteen. By 1922 the num-
ber was just at two million.

For the first time in their history, the Russian Orthodox undertook
aggressive mission work in China immediately following the Boxer settle-
ment. Re-entering Peking, they laboured vigorously and extended their
work until they had twenty-one churches, and chapels and ten evangelistic
stations, twenty schools, more than five thousand baptized Chinese, in five
different provinces. Then came the Russian Revolution, bringing disaster
to the missionary work.

V. PERIOD 01? THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH, 1922-

The National Christian Conference of 1922, and the National Christian
Council, which it created, mark the majority of Chinese Evangelical Chris-
tianity. From this date, on both sides, Chinese Christians and their mis-
sionary creators and patrons proceed increasingly on the theory that the

198 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Christian churches in China are free in Christ to determine their own
course in His worship and service, and that they must accept the responsi-
bility. Not all the sending churches and boards agree that it is yet safe
or loyal to turn over this authority and responsibility, nor are all Chinese
Christians ready to accept all that this involves. Yet missionary policy
increasingly proceeds upon this assumption. The older churches are hence-
forward, at least in theory, counsellors, helpers, contributors to the younger
churches in China. Of course, the missionary ideal is to make the mis-
sionary and the mission unnecessary. Before that stage is reached a rela-
tively long period of transition must ensue. The name for its processes
is "devolution." Chinese Evangelical Christianity is now in process of
missionary devolution and native church evolution.

A group of strategists and their echoes had been fostering this idea for
a dozen years. The Continuation Committee had especially fostered it.
Definite steps had been taken for four years to make the Conference of
1922 the occasion for inaugurating this policy in a large way. In the
first instance, it was no doubt the idea and work of American leaders, some
of them missionaries, but others what may be called "missionary states-
men." Chinese leaders collaborated ably and enthusiastically. Five com-
missions, made up of Chinese and foreigners, presented carefully prepared
reports on " The Present State of Christianity in China," " The Future Task
of the Church," "The Message of the Church," "Leadership," "Co-
ordination." Manifestly here was a council of Christian strategy for occu-
pying an empire. A slight majority of the membership were Chinese, and
Dr. C. Y. Cheng was permanent chairman. The supreme objective was
the creation of the Council, with a membership of a hundred, more than
half Chinese. It organized for permanent study and counsel with a view
to "co-ordinating Protestantism in China." Its secretariat is composed
of three Chinese, one of them a woman, and two foreigners. The first
group was composed of E. C. Cheng, K. T. Chung, Miss Y. J. Fan, Henry
T. Hodgkin, E. C. Ix>benstine. The executive committee included some of
the wisest and most trusted Chinese leaders. Of the major bodies, only
Southern Baptists did not join in. The China Inland Mission and the
Christian and Missionary Alliance withdrew after a few years. There
has been much questioning among missionaries of the wisdom of the move.
It has all along explicitly disavowed any purpose to dictate to churches or
to interfere with denominations. It must exercise very great influence and
its decisions are apt to be morally coercive.

By 1920 the number of ordained Chinese ministers exceeded the number

of ordained missionaries, when there were one thousand two hundred and

sixty-eight ordained in a total missionary force of six thousand two hun-

, dred and four. Self-supporting churches were increasing rapidly. The

I World War was followed in China, as in all other countries, by a strong

; nationalistic urge, and this powerfully affected the desire for self-control in

the~churches. Questions concerning the relations of Christian schools to the

national educational system had come forward from 1907 onward. The

China Education Commission of sixteen educators, foreign and Chinese,

under the chairmanship of Dr. E. D. Burton, hi the report based on their

CHINA 199

investigations in 1921-2, made recommendations that contributed to larger
place for Chinese in this work. Indeed, all phases of progress tended to
promote what was popularly called indigeneity of the Christian movement.

What has fittingly been called an anti-Christian movement took definite
form in 1922. It was the product of misinformed nationalism, the anti-
foreign crusade, communistic agitations, the sceptical criticism of the Renais-
sance or New Thought campaigns, the encouragement definitely of
Bertrand Russell and indirectly of Dr. John Dewey these two pre-eminently
among foreigners who were influencing the younger China.

The World's Student Christian Federation were making much of a con-
ference they were holding in the Tsing Hwa College, in April, 1922, at-
tended by members from all parts of China, all the continents and many
islands. A counter movement started, and in March formed an Anti-
Christian Federation which became very active. It was encouraged by
the organization in connection with a conference of national educators of
an Anti-Religious Federation. The agitations of these two organizations
led to disturbances in Christian schools and a widespread anti-Christian
demonstration at Christmas-time. Much more serious was the campaign
definitely launched against Christian schools in 1924, for this drew the
Government in with demands and regulations which, if literally enforced,
would almost destroy the Christian character of these schools.

Then came the fateful incident of May 30, 1925, which set China on
fire with anti-foreign indignation and wild with enthusiasm for national-
ism. Henceforth it was to be " China for the Chinese." The attack fell
most heavily upon the Christian schools, but there was violent feeling and
sometimes violent acts against all foreigners and their institutions. Ameri-
cans suffered least from this, but no one who failed to shout for Chinese
autonomy was welcome in China. All Chinese who were associated with
foreigners were their " running dogs," and this applied most extensively to
members of Christian churches. It became a plain necessity that Chinese
be placed increasingly in control of all Christian institutions. For a time
the foreign nations sought to withdraw to the great ports all their nationals,
including missionaries. Missionary work was largely demoralized. The
country, long in the throes of civil war, was also victimized by tens of
thousands of bandits. Communists were aggressive in fomenting revolu-
tion and hatred of all nationals of "capitalistic" countries. Govern-
ment demanded the registration of all schools and their control by Chinese,
and that in no case should religious studies or worship be compulsory, while
in elementary and middle schools it must be no part of the curriculum.

For six years the uncertainty and partial demoralization have continued.
The missionary agencies and workers have shown a fine degree of patience,
hope and sympathy. Chinese Christians have borne themselves with forti-
tude and have grown rapidly in capacity for independent conduct of affairs.
There is a general feeling among informed students that a Government,
many of whose members are Christian communicants and more of them
products of Christian schools, once order and peace can be measurably
attained, cannot officially persecute or seriously hamper proper activities
of Christians and their institutions. This hope was encouraged when the

200 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

President, Chiang K'ai-shek, early in 1931, quietly went to Shanghai and
on a Wednesday evening was unostentatiously accepted for membership in
a Methodist church.

One of the worst features of all this confusion is the confusion among
mission supporters in the home bases. As these pages are being written,
the confusion in China and the discouragement of the faint-hearted and
short-sighted in the supporting countries, particularly in the United States,
are not yet much, if at all, abating. But surely these are the birth-pangs
of a new epoch. They are times of adjustment, times of proving as by
fire. Even in the midst of all the confusion, hearers of the Christian mes-
sage are numerous and attentive, and converts as numerous as in any
previous time. Chinese Christians are learning to stand alone, to endure,
to witness; and they are finding the power of God working through them.
Baptisms continue in all parts. Some missions^ are able to report them in
greater numbers than ever before.

At the meeting of the National Christian Council, in Hankow, April,
1931, the General Secretary, Dr. C. Y. Cheng, frankly facing and clearly
stating difficulties and unsolved problems, gave' sound reasons for optimism.
There is evident recovery from " spiritual depression that was felt far and
wide." " The spirit of dismay and bewilderment has passed." " Signs of
life in the Christian Church during the past two years" were the wide-
spread evangelism and Christian nurture promoted by the Five Year Move-
ment and responded to largely ; activity of " the Church in practical projects
for all the unfortunate and suffering;" the "crowds of both missionaries
and native workers" who were inspired by recent meetings of Dr. Kagawa
(of Japan), in Hangchow, Shanghai, Soochow, Tsinan, and Weihsien; an
obvious rapprochement between the Church and youth; the enormous circu-
lation of " the Greatest Book in the World," which in whole or in parts has
been distributed within two years by the three Bible societies in " close to
twenty-six million copies, and has won the appreciation of non-Christian
scholars as never before." He concludes with the exhortation: "Let us
march forward in the strength of Him Who is 'the same yesterday, today
and forever ! ' " And this is the voice of Chinese Christianity.

Within a few years the tragic years will be seen in a new perspective.
Christians will reckon 1925 as the year which forced them to see more
clearly than ever before that the Kingdom of Christ in China, as in all the
world, is a Kingdom of truth, righteousness, brotherhood, love, because it
is a Kingdom of redemption.

XIV
THE JAPANESE EMPIRE

KOREAN Christianity has its own history, as have the Korean people
their history. Since 1905 it has been under Japanese control and
since 1910 formally incorporated in the Empire. "The Christian
Movement in Japan " for several years has included Korea in its annual pub-
lication. The present and future of Christian missions there are definitely
related to the political facts. The same applies to Formosa, which Japan
appropriated in 1895. Hence the inclusion of both these in this chapter.
Including all her islands and Korea, Japan is a nation of about eighty-
five million people, all of kindred stock but with obviously different
race types.

The national history begins somewhat more than six hundred years B. c.,
exact dates probably not reliable for the first thousand years. The myths
and legends of the divine origin of land and people, and especially of the
royal family, were embodied in the sacred literature of the early eighth
century, and are studiously inculcated in the school instruction even in* the
modern period of scientific culture. The one dynasty that has run through
twenty-five centuries worships the divine goddess mother annually at the
nation's most sacred shrine of Ise.

The Japanese are a people pre-eminent for patriotism and filial piety,
romantic, energetic, versatile. Their sense of personal deity and of essen-
tial ethics is perhaps less sharp than that of any other great people. Their
hereditary religion is Shin-to Japanese Kami-no-michi the Way of the
Gods. It combines nature worship with Emperor worship and ancestor
worship, the latter being less developed than in China. Totemism, espe-
cially fox worship and horse worship, were, until this century, prominent.
In the sixth century Buddhism came in and gradually became practically
universal in its numerous sects, and for some twelve hundred years has
been more distinctly a religion than Shinto, which is the absolutely universal
cult of patriotic devotion. While the story is not to be trusted in detail,
it is probably true that a Nestorian, called in Japan Rimitsu, was present
at the court of Shomu, 724-728; and that he did influence the Empress
Komyo. Whether we may believe that her title, "Light and Illumination,"
was in recognition of her Christian faith or not, it is notable that the impor-
tant Amida Buddhism, like its counterpart in North China, teaches salvation
through faith alone in a divine redeemer. Records show that Japanese went
to China for study in the centuries of the early Nestorian missions.

We have seen how the Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans had a period
of flourishing missions from 1549 to 1637. Daring priests continued occa-
sionally to attempt to revive the work, but were either killed or expelled,
the last instance being in 1715, when Father Sidotti died after seven years in

201

202 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

prison. Japanese interpreters insist that their opposition was fundamentally
not religious, but in the interests of national safety and integrity.

Japan rigidly excluded all foreigners and all foreign influences from
that time until 1853. Not only did she permit no foreigner even to visit
in Japan; she would permit no Japanese who on any account got away
from the home land and touched another to return, under penalty of death.
A case in point was the carefully planned trip of an American merchant,
King, on his ship, the Morrison, as late as 1837, from Macao to return to
their native land seven Japanese. Every precaution was taken to make it
an entirely friendly approach. The missionaries Giitzlaff, S. Wells Wil-
liams and Peter Parker were taken along. Careful statements of the friend-
liest nature were sent on shore at Yedo. Next morning, without warning,
they were fired upon. They had the same experience at Kagoshima and, on
the urgency of the Japanese refugees, did not try at Nagasaki.

From 1637 to 1854 foreign trade with Japan was limited to a few small
shiploads a year, all conducted through a Dutch post on a small island off
Nagasaki, the Japanese holding out successfully against all the methods
tried for expanding commerce.

The Christian forces could not wait patiently for Japan's invitation.
Her people needed the Gospel. Both Catholics and Protestants sought to
make the Loo Choo Islands a doorway into Japan, with no success and
with little results from efforts in Napha, the port. The Roman Church
had proof that their followers continued in Japan. In 1820 some of them
came to buy Christian books in Batavia. In 1826 the Shogun tried to
extradite for execution six who had escaped to. Fusan, Korea, where a
Christian colony had continued since the persecution of lyeyasu. In 1831
priests in the Philippines baptized seventeen Japanese who were carrying
metal symbols of their faith. In 1832 the Pope set up a vicarate of Korea
and the Loo Choo Islands. In 1844 Forcade was left a Napha in spite of
all opposition, and in 1855 three other priests landed by trickery and per-
sistence. By 1851 they had baptized one man. In 1846 an English ship
put off Dr. Bettelheim, his wife and two children, at Napha. He had come
under the auspices of " The Loo Choo. Naval Mission," an organization
of English churchmen in the navy. He was relieved in 1853 by Moreton,
who had sailed with Perry. He remained two years. Four had been
baptized. The work was given up.

When, in 1784, the son of the Korean ambassador at Peking was bap-
tized by a Jesuit priest, he returned to preach, and persecution began.
This introduced an era of remarkable heroism and loyalty during which tens
of thousands suffered martyrdom until, in 1865, an imperial edict decreed the
extermination of Christianity. A bishop and seven European priests were
tortured to death, and with the slaughter of eight thousand and the scattering
of all the survivors the work of extermination seemed complete.

RAPID RISE TO MODERNISM

Once Japan broke with her past, she moved with unparalleled rapidity
to complete modernity. From absolute seclusion and exclusiveness, in less
than fifty years she took her seat in the councils of the nations as one of

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 203

the five first-class "powers" among whom ambassadors are exchanged.
This quick transition is divided into certain stages by clearly marked events
that bear definitely upon Christian progress.

Perry's patient and skillful negotiation of a trade treaty for the United
States on his visit divided into two 1853-4 was, of course, quickly
followed by similar treaties with the other trading nations. This did not
provide any legal way for the missionary, but only for the opening of
certain ports to trade. The next epochal event was the Revolution of
1868, in which the Mikado was restored to actual rulership after being
relieved of that burden for seven hundred years by the Shogun, while the
Mikado played the role of Divine Ruler through his Shogun and the feudal
daimyos. This feudal system was at once seen to be unfit for the new
course of Japan. Most of the lords patriotically united to change the order,
and in a /few months brought the recalcitrants to terms. The Emperor was
absolute ruler.

A few years more sufficed to see that absolute monarchs were not suited
to modern nations. In 1889 a constitution was adopted and a new form
of national life began. Japan was still a second-rate nation and extraterri-
toriality was maintained by the "civilized" nations. By 1895 Japan had
diplomatically won the consent of the "powers" to place her on the highest
footing at the end of the century. The humiliating defeat of China in
1894-5 had proved her worth. f

In 1900 Japan enters upon her career as a "world power," and adopts
the national fashion of building empire at the expense of other peoples'
liberties. She selected Germany as her model, and organized her arma-
ments after German example and instruction. Korea was in the path of
Russia's needs, as well as Japan's. It was to " preserve Korea's inde-
pendence" that Japan had fought China in 1894, and she had remained
to " assist " Korea in her affairs. Now, in 1904, it was necessary to save
Korea from Russia, and at the close of that war Japan had to take even
closer supervision, assuming responsibility for all Korea's international
relations, and pressing her "protection" over into Manchuria.

In the mutual interest of their plans and to hold Germany and Russia
in check in their threats to China's integrity, Great Britain and Japan
made an alliance for a term of five years. After three years this seemed
so advantageous that it was renewed in 1909 for a period of ten years.
This determined Japan's affiliation in the World War. Her logical course
then would have been to join with the Central Powers, which Japanese
expected certainly to win. It is greatly to Japan's credit that she held
to her alliance. Yet hefr war assignment was such that in case of Ger-
many's winning, she and Japan could easily have divided the control of
Asia between them. In 1918 Japan was bewildered, and in difficult lines.
She had become an industrial nation in recent years, had raised her stand-
ards of living greatly. The economic condition was oppressive. The con-
science of the world had checked her exploitation of China in 1915-6.
Imperialism was for the moment condemned, and Germany was in ruins.
Apparently Japanese policy was wrong. At the Washington Conference,
1922, her statesmen came upon a new ideal.

204 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The course of the United States Congress, in insulting Japan by offensive
phrasing in immigration laws, against the urgent pleas of the President
and the Secretary of State, made an extremely difficult situation. Com-
munism was threatening Japan internally, and there were other serious
questions at home. There were two parties struggling. The party of
peaceful progress and international friendliness won, with the strong sup-
port of the Prince Regent, and Japan was for a time given the opportunity,
which she eagerly accepted, of being the outstanding national exponent of
peace and brotherhood among the nations.

EARLIEST MISSIONARY EFFORTS

While all these national and international developments extensively
affected missionary work, the periods of its progress do not coincide with
the epochs in national evolution. Until 1859 no missionary work was
permitted. The former attitude toward "the evil religion," and the edicts
prohibiting Christianity remained in force.

In Perry's fleet was a sailor, Johnathan Goble, a Free Baptist, who had
joined the fleet in the hope of aiding thereby in getting missionary work
going. Perry's interpreter was S. Wells Williams, China, whose great
concern also was Christian missions.

It was fortunate for every interest that America's first official repre-
sentative in Japan was a brave, considerate, able and devout Christian,
Townsend Harris. He came as consul to Shimoda, in 1856, and negotiated
a new treaty in 1859 which provided that from July 4, 1859, certain ports
should be open to residence of American citizens. Americans were per-
mitted the free exercise of their own religion and to erect suitable places
of worship. This was the signal for which several denominations were
waiting. Alreay books of general information, published by the missions
in China, had been republished in Japan and eagerly studied; and some of
these, notably one by Dr. Bridgman, carried a good deal of Christian
teaching. Chaplains on some of the ships taught young men English in
exchange for Japanese. This offered suggestion for an opening.

In 1859 there came a number of men, some of them to prove prominent
among "the Makers of the New Japan." McGowan, of the Baptist Mis-
sion in Ning-po, taught a class of young men several weeks in Nagasaki.
They gladly accepted from him copies of the Chinese- English New Testa-
ment, but on the orders of the Governor returned them all. The American
Episcopal Church ordered two of their missionaries to leave China and
begin work immediately in Japan. The Presbyterian Board sent Dr.
Hepburn, and the Reformed Church, Brown, Simmons and Verbeck. In
1860 Johnathan Goble was back as the first Baptist missionary, after
advocating missions to Japan in both his own country and England. In
that same year the Southern Baptists appointed three. Rohrer and Bond,
with their wives, sailed on the S. S. Forest, which was never heard of
again, but C. H. Toy remained at home to become a famous scholar.
Japanese young men were eager for Western learning and to know the
English language; and the Government encouraged this. In 1869 Verbeck,
with the approval of his board, accepted an official request to open a school

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 205

in Tokyo, out of which developed the Imperial University. Indeed, it was
the beginning of Japan's system of modern education. The ability, culture,
courage and tact of these young men who went to Japan to teach, in order
that they might introduce the Gospel, gave to Christianity an initial advan-
tage such as it has hardly had in any country. As medical missionary,
translator, writer, preacher and Kingdom statesman, Dr. J. C. Hepburn
laboured until 1892, then seventy-seven years old. So great was his con-
tribution to Japan that in 1905 the Emperor recognized his ninetieth birth-
day by decorating him with the Third Class of the Imperial Order of the
Rising Sun. The same honour was conferred, in 1877, on Guido F. Ver-
beck. He was not only a great missionary, teacher, translator, founder of
the national university system; he was the most trusted foreign counsellor
to the Government. Others were only less distinguished in this great galaxy,'
of men who gave to Japan so noble an introduction to Christianity.

In 1869 came Greene, first representative of the American Board. In
1828 a Christian merchant in Brookline, Massachusetts, inaugurated in
his home a monthly meeting for prayer for the conversion of the world.
At their initial meeting, this Mr. Ropes called special attention to Japan
and took a collection amounting to twenty-seven dollars and eighty-seven
cents for a mission to Japan, and sent it to the Board. Present in this
meeting was a young minister whose son, forty-one years later, was the
board's pioneer to Japan. Before he was sent, the board had through he
years accumulated more than six thousand dollars from unsolicited sums
sent in for a mission to Japan.

It was in 1869, also, that Miss Kidder arrived, the first single lady
missionary, to teach girls, while in 1871 the Woman's Union Missionary
Society sent a representative to open a school for girls in Yokohama. It
was unwise, even had it been possible, to try to gain converts in this
period in any numbers. The moderation and consideration of the evangel^
ical missionaries, and their very great contribution to the leaders of Japan's
transition were the best possible means for commending their religion and
overcoming prejudice.

Some few there would be who must be baptized. By the beginning of
1872 there had been nine such, so far as known. The first was in 1864,
when Dr. Ballaugh baptized his teacher, who insisted on taking all the
risk. Then, in 1866, Dr. Verbeck baptized the two brothers Murata, whose
romantic story cannot here be told. For eleven years they had in most
remarkable fashion been learning Christ, having been led to this by the
"accidental" finding of a Portuguese New Testament floating in the sea,
when Wakasa, the more important of the two, was in command of a patrol
watching some foreign ships. Now, a man of high official position in his
province, he comes with his brother for baptism. But all such baptisms
were done with utmost secrecy.

While sentiment was rapidly changing, there were many to oppose all
change, and especially to antagonize all Christian activity and to empha-
size the danger of these foreign teachers. In 1866 one prominent Japanese
sent two nephews to the United States to be educated. In 1867 a naval
officer memorialized the Mikado's Government" against " the religion of

206 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Jesus," which he said was being promulgated to an alarming extent in
the open ports, a religion which he said was "entirely based upon deceit,
immorality, and imposition." In 1866 an official gazette was distributed
to the effect that "The evil sect called Christian is strictly prohibited.
Suspicious persons should be reported to the proper officers, and rewards
will be given." Upon the American minister's finding this out, a united
protest was made by foreign representatives. They procured a modification
in the form, but not in the meaning.

In 1869 a deliberative conference of the clans heard Dr. Verbeck's plea
and argument for religious toleration. In 1871 a pamphlet was circulated
by a prominent Japanese scholar and teacher, as if by a foreigner. Prais-
ing the liberal spirit of the Emperor, he seeks to show him that the secret of
power of the Western nations is in their religion. He boldly advises not
only the abolition of the proscriptions of Christianity, but actually estab-
lishing Christianity as the official religion of Japan. Let the Emperor be
baptized "and become the chief of the church, and be called the leader
of the millions of his people."

By 1872, in some centres sentiment encouraged ignoring the prohibition.
A series of prayer-meetings of missionaries and other English-speaking
people in Yokohama was continued through the first week of January,
1872. Several- Japanese students attended, and as many as half a dozen of
/them openly prayed. The outcome was the organization of the first Prot-
iestant church of Japan, on March 10. Its membership was eleven, nine
young men baptized then and two middle-aged men previously baptized.
This first church was autonomous from the start. They chose an. elder and
a deacon from their number, and named their organization " The Church
of Christ in Japan." Mr. Ballaugh was the first pastor. How far they were
counselled by missionaries in their action is not reported.

CATHOUC MISSIONS

Catholics had taken advantage of the first opportunity to move from
their feeble outpost in the Loo Choo's to the mainland. Girard was made
Superior of the mission, sent a plea to Paris for four missionaries, and
went to Yedo in 1859, where he was recognized as a priest temporarily
acting as interpreter for the French Consul. Two months later another
priest settled at Hakodate and proceeded at once to erect a small chapel,
and seems to have made himself popular for four years, when he retired.
Another priest settled in Yokohama, in 1861, to erect a church, for for-
eigners only, but with the definite intention of making it a mission base.
In 1862 the Loo Choo mission was closed, having gained one convert in
the eighteen years.

Opening work in Nagasaki, in 1863, the priests built a church memorial
of the martyrs of 1597, which was dedicated with much ardour, in 1865.
Almost at once worshippers began to come in, and more and more it was
found that at various places there were secret Christians. With the utmost
caution to protect themselves from publicity, persecutions set in in 1867,
and before the new freedom of 1873 as many as four thousand had been
deported. They reckoned their Christians at this time at fifteen thousand,

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 207

besides many thousands who were descendants of the former missionary
converts, but had not yet identified themselves with the new mission. It
was a notable message cabled by Bishop Petitjean to the Paris Society, in
March, 1873: "Edicts against Christians removed. Prisoners freed. In-
form Rome, Propagation of Faith, Holy Infancy (name of an order sending
five nuns to conduct an orphanage). Need immediately fifteen mission-
aries." Already the Catholics were stationed in Hakodate, Yokohama,
Osaka, Kobe and Nagasaki. They proposed to advance.

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX

We must pass over some incidental contacts of Russians with Japanese
and a few possible converts prior to 1859, when Russia opened her con-
culate at Hakodate with a Greek Orthodox chaplain in attendance. In
1861 there came a young priest for this position who had longed for mis-
sionary service and was particularly interested in Japan. Ivan Kasatkin
took the ordination name Nicolai, which he made famous in missionary
history by fifty-one years of service marked by extraordinary ability, devo-
tion, wisdom of method and high character. His idea was to make the
Orthodox faith indigenous from the start. He attracted and trained men
of character, culture and consecration. He had very few missionaries
ever to assist him. He so won the confidence of all classes that when he
refused to desert his flock when the war with Russia came, he was granted
almost complete freedom of action. During the war he voluntarily re-
frained from conducting the worship of his churches, counselled his priests
to pray for the success of their country, which as a loyal Russian he could
not do. It would be pleasant to record the stories of some of the noble
Japanese converts, workers and priests, like Sawabe, Ono and many
others. It is no wonder that, upon his death, in 1912, the Archimandrite
left a church of thirty thousand with congregations at many points in
Yeddo and Hondo. Nor can we be surprised that there has been little
growth since his death. Russia's history since 1914 has not commended
the Russian Church. We have thus anticipated the history and reluctantly
content ourselves with this brief paragraph about the Greek Orthodox
mission.

I. RAPID ADVANCE, 1873-1889

On February 19, 1873, the Government ordered the removal of the boards
which, for a century^ and a half, had proclaimed that Christianity was pro-
hibited on penalty of death to any Christian or even the Christian's God.
The edict was not repealed, because the Government feared the populace,
and possibly they were influenced by a certain pride of position. In view
of much discussion on the subject, Otis Carey quotes the American min-
ister, DeLong, "that no particular man or government is entitled to the
credit of ... these results. They are the fruit of the earnest labour of
foreign representatives at this court, Christian missionaries in this empire,
and Christian statesmen and gentlemen abroad who had access to the em-
bassy and improved the opportunity they enjoyed." The embassy here
referred to was one sent in 1871 to study in Europe and America the con-

208 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

ditions and factors of civilization and government, and to try to effect new
treaties which would do away with extraterritoriality and put Japan on an
equality with "the most enlightened nations." Everywhere this embassy
met vigorous criticism of Japan's intolerance and a demand for legal re-
ligious equality as a prior condition to the recognition asked for. Without
waiting fctf return, the embassy began, and others entered upon, a. campaign
for changing Japan's position. The removal of the edict boards preceded
by eight months the return of the embassy. A vigorous controversy en-
sued. The Government assigned as their reason that the laws were so
well known that the boards were not needed; but tolerated the missionary
activities.

The response to the new freedom was instant and continuous. More
new missionaries came in one year than were in Japan already, bringing
the total to eighty-seven, representing ten organizations, seven> of the United
States, one Canadian and the two Church of England bodies. By 1881 the
missionaries numbered four hundred and fifty-one. Instead of the one
church of nine members there were now two hundred and forty-nine, with
a membership of approximately twenty-eight thousand. Ninety-two of the
churches were wholly self-supporting. There were one hundred and forty-
two ordained Japanese preachers, two hundred and sixty-five other preach-
ers and workers, besides seventy Bible-women. In fifteen boarding schools
there were two thousand seven hundred and nine boys, and three thousand
six hundred and sixty-three girls in thirty-nine schools, while forty-seven
day schools enrolled three thousand two hundred and ninety-nine. Four-
teen theological seminaries had two hundred and eighty-seven students,
while three schools were training ninety-two Bible-women. The member-
ship figures include baptized children.

It is quite impossible to give the details of their progress. In September,
1873, in Tokyo, the second church was organized, in connection with the
Presbyterian mission, but on the same basis as the first, seven of the eight
members coming from the Yokohama church, which by this time had fifty.
In point of time, the Baptists had come second, for the four missionaries,
the Gobies and Browns, constituted themselves into a church in Yokohama,
in March. They baptized a Japanese in July, but this can hardly yet be
called a Japanese church. Kobe and Osaka had churches founded in 1874,
when the Yokohama church had grown to one hundred and nineteen mem-
bers, twelve of whom joined a theological class under Dr. Brown, the
beginning of theological seminaries.

About 1858 or 1859 a sixteen-year-old boy in Yedo (Tokyo) borrowed
from a comrade Bridgman's Chinese Atlas of the United States, which
enabled him to contrast conditions with his own country. Next he saw a
Bible in Chinese, which he borrowed and read, at night out of fear. In
a story which he wrote when his English was still very crude, he tells
us: "From time to time my mind was filled to read English Bible, and
purposed to go to Hakodate to get English or American teacher of it.
therefore I asked of my prince and parents to go thither. But they had

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 209

not allowed to me for it, and were alarmed at it. But my stableness would
not destroy by their expostulations, and I kept my thoughts, praying only
to God: please! let me reach my aim." At length he risked his life, for
the death penalty applied to efforts to leave Japan. He stowed away on
a ship to Shanghai. There he sold one of his two Samurai swords and
bought him an English Bible. He worked his way to Boston on a ship,
enduring hardships and insults from the sailors. The owner of the ship
was Mr. Alpheus Hardy, a Christian deeply interested in missions. He
educated the Japanese boy, Joseph Hardy Neesima. (Niishima), in Phillips
Academy, Amherst College and Andover Seminary. When the Japanese
embassy arrived in America, 1871, they employed Neesima as interpreter
and offered him every inducement to enter government service. But his
heart was in higher service. Mr. Hardy was Chairman of the American
Board's Prudential Committee, and Neesima was to go back in connection
with the board. At its annual meeting he was to make an address, for
which he made careful preparation. When he stood before the body, one
passion swept him. In a tearful plea he said : " I cannot go back to Japan
without money to found a Christian college, and I am going to stand here
until I get it." He got nearly five thousand dollars, subscribed at once, and
went home in 1874, ten years after he had run away to learn the English
Bible. He was able to open a school in the sacred Buddhist city of Kyoto,
where missionaries failed. Overcoming all difficulties and violent oppo^
sition, he got his school going in 1875, to guide it into the great Doshisha
University, until his death, in 1890, an unequivocal Christian institution
rendering untold service to Christianity in Japan and far beyond.

In 1872 a retired captain of the United States Army, L. L. Janes, whose
wife was a daughter of Dr. John Scudder, of India, accepted an invitation
to teach a military school at Kumamoto. He gained the respect and con-
fidence of his students. An invitation to such as cared to come to his
home Sunday evenings for study of the English Bible was accepted by a
number. On the last Sunday in January, 1876, forty of these young men,
on a high hill above the city, held a meeting under a spreading pine which
was still standing in 1923. There they pledged themselves, writing their
names in blood from their wrists, to follow Christ and "to enlighten the
darkness of the empire by preaching the Gospel, even at the sacrifice of
their lives." Commotion and persecution followed, in the school and in the
homes. Some of the group were imprisoned, some disowned and even
urged to suicide for the family honour. Bibles were burned. Thirty of
the members of this famous " Kumamoto Band " learned of Neesima's school
just opening in Kyoto, and entered it. Six of those, and another who
joined when the persecution grew severe, became distinguished in the
service of Christianity and of their nation, such as Paul Kanamori, Ypkoi,
and Ebina, who surrendered the pastorate of the great Kumiai Church in
Yokohama to accept the presidency of the Doshisha at a critical time in
its history.

In their eagerness to win recognition for progress as a modern people,
Christianity, especially Protestant Christianity, seemed to many Japanese
a most important factor. Its superiority to Buddhism and to Shinto as

210 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

a religion and as an inspiration to progress was evident. When Buddhist
bonzes began reforms it was obvious to many that they were only imitators,
that they had failed to make Buddhism function as a force of regeneration
and evolution. Increasingly public men regarded Shinto as a system of
patriotism and not a religion in the same sense that Christianity is. There
were those who advocated making Christianity the national religion, an
idea which found no encouragement from the American missionaries. On
the other hand, there continued to be strong opposition to the new religion.
In 1879 foreign teachers in the Imperial University organized in opposition
to Christianity and facilitated a campaign of scepticism from Europe. The
Department of Education consistently opposed Christianity. Even so, the
Christian movement progressed. In one year, 1879, the membership in-
creased sixty per cent. In 1880 two translations of the ESfew Testament
were completed, first by Dr. Nathan Brown, Baptist, and shortly that on
which a committee had been working since their appointment by the first
Conference of Missionaries, 1872. On this one, S. R. Brown, Greene,
Hepburn, and Maclay had been ably assisted by five Japanese Christian
scholars, to one of whom, Matsuyama, the committee attributed "mainly,
if not altogether," " whatever virtue there was in their Japanese text." In
the same year Japanese Christians, who had begun holding conventions
two years before, had a two-days' meeting in the Public Park, Ueno, Tokyo,
where thousands witnessed the worship and heard the Gospel. It was also
in 1880 that the Young Men's Christian Association began, to prove so in-
fluential with young men both in commercial life and among students, and
in the twentieth, century to take important part in missionary strategy.

Roman Catholics suffered in influence with the progressive elements
because of their connection in the Japanese mind with the unfavourable
impression made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; because of
their continued and characteristic intimacy with political interests, and
because they were not recognized as representative of America, whose in-
fluence was dominant in this era of Japan's growth. Still they continued
energetically and heroically to discover and relate the " Separtes " of the
older Christianity and to win new converts, so that by 1889 they numbered
about forty thousand.

II. PERIOD 0? REACTION, 1889-1900

In the five years, 1884-1889, the evangelical membership had increased
almost five hundred per cent. In the next ten years it grew less than fifty
per cent. Christians and others compared these two facts with discour-
aging impression on the Christians and with delight by their enemies in
Japan and in other countries. For the time being, it seemed to be over-
looked that a fifty per cent increase in ten years would ordinarily be regarded
as healthy and encouraging growth.

Widespread indifference was experienced where previously enthusiastic
readiness to hear and approve had been found. . There was growing antag-
onism in many quarters, official and popular, manifest especially in the
middle and higher classes. Government placed increasingly difficult regu-
lations upon Christian schools. The teaching of religion, even in outside

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 211

hours, came to be prohibited in such schools as sought credit for their
pupils who were to pass on into state schools, or asked for their young
men the exemption from military service by which the Government en-
couraged higher education. There was almost continuous and sometimes
acute, even bitter, friction between missionaries and native ministers and
churches. Lack of harmony was all too obvious among the missionaries,
due to differences in theology, mission policies and personal interests. The
most outstanding storm centre was the Doshisha University. Up to this
time all property of all missions must be held in the name of Japanese.
Naturally, the Doshisha had been in ultimate Japanese control from the
start. Its trustees grew increasingly indifferent to, and defiant toward,
the American Board, its foreign supporters and the Japanese Congrega-
tional Church. Religious teaching, even of the Bible, was reduced until
in the Middle School it was abolished, and the religious elements were
eliminated from the commencement exercises. Professors, both Japanese
and foreign, were retained who ridiculed and opposed Christianity in
classroom and privately, some of them publicly. Early in 1898 the trustees
went the length of revising the " Fundamental Principles " of the Consti-
tution, which Neesima had caused to be declared "unchangeable." And
this was done in order to void the statement : " Christianity is the foundation
of the moral education promoted by this company." ,

The American Board now sent an able lawyer, Mr. Mclvor, a member
of the board, who had previously been Consul-General in Japan, to try
to save the day. He was ably assisted by Count Okuma. When he finally
was driven to threaten to carry the matter through the highest courts
of Japan and had pointed out that, even if he lost, the loss of faith of
foreigners in the integrity of Japanese would have far-reaching business
and financial effects, the trustees graciously resigned and permitted their
places to be filled by men who restored at least the nominal Christian
character of the school and placed at its head one who would seek to
conciliate the interests involved. In 1902, to anticipate, Hon Kataoka
Kenkichi, Speaker of the Lower House of the National Diet, accepted the
presidency, only to be taken by death the next year. He was a man of
stalwart faith, who had refused all entreaty of politicians at least to sur-
render for a short time his eldership in the Presbyterian Church for fear
his Christianity would prevent his election.

Omitting numerous other incidents which would show in detail the
reaction, it must suffice to say that in the Ecumenical Missionary Con-
ference, New York, 1900, the three missionary speakers on Japan gave
almost unrelieved expression to pessimism over the situation and outlook.
It remained for the lone Japanese spokesman to give the needed note of
hope and reassurance.

CAUSES OF RETARDED PROGRESS

We must take a brief look at the causes of this retardation. It has
already been suggested that it was, after all, only relative. The hope that
a nation would be Christianized in one generation, or even in one century,
was extravagant and cherished only by ignoring history.

212 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

It was too much, too, to expect that Christian schools would be accepted
at their own estimate and on their own terms by a Government eagerly
working out its own school system by which it proposed to abolish illiter-
acy, modernize the nation and at the same time maintain the historic
patriotism which had ever made the nation the supreme end. Christians,
missionaries and converts, justly appraised most highly their own contri-
bution to Japanese progress and their worth to the nation; but they had
no right to be disappointed if Japan as a whole failed to give them social,
political and religious influence corresponding to their actual worth. In
official positions and in recognition their standing was great out of all
proportion to their numbers.

The inroads of what was then called the " new theology/' destructive criti-
cism and agnostic science weakened the convictions of mission schools and
seriously affected the ministry, as also they caused division and controversy.

Japan was changing to an industrial and commercial career, and many
of her leaders had become convinced that commerce and finance, not
religion, constituted the power of America and of the European nations.
This view came to be an extensively propagated doctrine. The growing
militarism, always in honour in Japan and now learned afresh from the
West, was stimulated by the war with China.

Buddhist ~~ priests and some Shinto leaders aggressively organized and
campaigned against Christianity as being alien, ill-adapted to Japanese
temperament and ideals, involving disloyalty to their history, traditions,
pride and honour. Buddhists, especially, appropriated and extensively
employed Christian methods, Sunday schools, lecture halls, a Young Men's
Buddhist Association, newspapers, tracts, religious schools, etc.

Christianity set moral and ethical standards which were at variance
with, and usually too high for, the Japanese conscience in important par-
ticulars, as they are always too severe for unregenerate human nature.

Finally, we must keep in mind that Japan was passing into a new stage
of her national evolution. For a time she was increasingly conscious of
her backward position and eager to learn and to be helped. This had
largely to pass. Self-sufficiency and self-assertion must control if maturity
is gained. Always in such cases the pupil nation's faith in itself outruns
the judgment of the teachers, and conflicts arise. Japan adopted her
Constitution in 1889. She put into it an article declaring religious neu-
trality and, apart from Shinto, separation of State and Church, with re-
ligious freedom. She pressed for complete equality with the " most favoured
nations," but was able to secure only the pledge that this would be put into
effect in 1899.

For Christianity, this period of a dozen years of retarded growth was
far from an unmixed evil, and its value to Japan was not lessened by
the reappraisements which were made. The numerous and powerful
Buddhists were eagerly seeking to have Buddhism made the state religion
and to secure dominating influence in state schools. The reaction against
Christian positions and claims brought to light principles which thwarted
the Buddhist ambitions. Christian schools were driven more clearly to
define and accept their distinctive functions as religious institutions, and

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 213

.the Doshisha was saved to Christianity. The Unitarian influence, which
-was so widely pervading the dominant Independent Christianity, was re-
vealed in its weaknesses and measurably checked. Christian unity was
promoted in the outcome of the troubles and conflicts, the churches were
purged of many superficial adherents and membership put on a sounder
basis, newer and safer methods of Christian work were adopted. The
whole Christian movement caine into more dependence upon God and less
upon education, culture and political patronage. The forty-two thousand
four hundred evangelical members were prepared for a better era so soon
- as they could accept their task and be lifted into an optimistic undertaking
of it. The fifty-seven thousand Roman Catholic members proved that they
were not a. spent or defeated force.

Inasmuch as Formosa was incorporated in this period, 1895, we may
here glance at the work there. This island is largely of Chinese popula-
tion, with a Malay element and a growing number of Japanese. English
Presbyterians opened work in 1865, and Canadian Presbyterians in 1872,
while the Anglicans entered, along with the Anglican Japanese Church, in
1897, with the approval of the Japanese administration. The great mis-
sionary was the Canadian, George Iv. Mackay, who built up an indigenous
church which effected union with English Presbyterian churches in 1912.
In 1923 there were twenty-one missionaries, eight thousand three hundred
and ninety-seven communicants. The Riu Kiu Islands were annexed in 18/8.
Missions, begun in 1846, had little success, but were undertaken anew about
1890 by Japanese Christians and by Episcopal and Baptist missionaries.

III. RETURNING PROSPERITY, 1900-1908

With the new status upon which Japan entered just at the turn of the
centuries, with recognition as in all respects on an equality with the other
" first-class powers," the national sensitiveness largely passed away. Great
Britain's relations were becoming ever more friendly and the United States
remained cordial. The Missionary Conference in New York stimulated
fresh interest in missions, and especially did it mark the beginning of an
unprecedented enlistment of laymen in sympathetic support. The Boxer
trouble and the taking over of the Philippines from Spain gave Americans
an interest in the East greater than they ever had before.

A series of meetings and incidents in 1900 indicated and promoted a
turn in the Christian tide.

A convention of those interested in Christian schools defined their com-
plaints against the Government's attitude, and favourable changes were
soon forthcoming.

Dr. Clark, "Father of the Christian Endeavour," made a second visit
(after a first in 1892) and put new life into these organizations of young
Christians.

The sole representative of the Unitarian Mission returned to America.
His expressed reason was that Japan, having entered upon complete
"autonomous commercial and practical life," should have also "an autono-
mous religious life." He magnified the fact that his organization was the
first to take such action. It is known that an additional reason was the

214 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

inability to procure financial support. The Unitarian organization in
Japan did not profess to be a church. While some proceeds of an invested
fund were used to help sustain "Unity Hall," in Tokyo, the retirement
was a practical confession of failure and had wholesome bearing on the
Unitarian tendencies in evangelical churches.

The Third General Conference of Protestant Missionaries in Japan, in
October, was attended by almost four hundred missionaries, besides around
fifty from China and elsewhere. It considered, earnestly and hopefully,
various subjects. Three prominent Japanese spoke on temperance, work
for ex-convicts, and prostitution. Three important committees were cre-
ated: one was to promote co-operation with the Japanese in a general
evangelistic campaign; one to effect a uniform translation of about a hun-
dred of the best hymns ; perhaps most important of all, a committee on
union and co-operation, which in 1902 effected a permanent organization
as " The Standing Committee of Co-operating Missions in Japan." This
committee was to render great service for nearly a quarter of a century
until merged with and lost in the Christian Council. This committee in-
augurated the publication of The Christian Movement in Japan, an annual
volume, which has included Korea for many years.

All this was the beginning of a new aggressiveness. The Young Men's
Christian Association fell in with the general evangelistic movement and
brought out t)r. Mott for remarkable meetings in the national as well as
the Christian schools. Prominent evangelists from abroad joined in the
work, among them Drs. R. A. Torrey, G. F. Pentecost and H. Grattan
Guinness, and in 1907 General Booth, whose reception was most enthusi-
astic and his tours and meetings a means of help. He was received by
the Emperor and allowed to wear his Army uniform to the Palace. The
Army had entered Japan in 1895, doing its characteristic work and utilizing
natives from the first.

Many indications of popular and official friendliness and favour could
be cited. Evangelistic meetings were conducted in a "Christian Union
Evangelistic Hall " on an open square facing the main entrance to the
National Exhibition in Osaka, for five months, in 1903, at which it is
recorded that two hundred and forty-six thousand attended, and some
notable conversions resulted.

Students from Korea and China poured into Japan for the new educa-
tion there provided. The Student Union of the Young Men's Christian
Association did effective work among these. In 1907 the holding of a
Conference of the World's Christian Student Federation was significant.
Marquis Ito sent a letter of commendation with a contribution of ten thou-
sand yen for expenses. A Buddhist conference sent a friendly greeting by
a special deputation.

In the war with Russia, Christians utilized most effectively the oppor-
tunity for disproving one of the most damaging charges against them,
that they were not loyal to the Emperor and the nation. They not only
took their places in the service, but ministered ' in astonishing degree to
the soldiers in the camps, to the wounded and invalided as they were
returned, and to the families of soldiers at the front.

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 215

The Japanese Church offered to provide chaplains. This was declined,
but the Young Men's Christian Association's services were accepted.
Under the direction of one foreign and two Japanese secretaries, this
service was so efficient and so appreciated as to gain high approval. The
Emperor and the Empress contributed ten thousand yen for the work and
went on afterward to give financial support to a number of Christian
charities. The Buddhists undertook to emulate the services of the Young
Men's Christian Association, but failed in efficiency and popularity. During
this period Buddhism came in for much criticism for its failure as an
ethical force in the life of the nation.

IV. CONFUSION AND CRISIS, 1908-1915

The pendulum was not long in making another backward swing. The
forces of opposition were clearly introducing confusion and discourage-
ment by about 1908. It became quite customary to hear missionary speakers
lament that the Christian opportunity in Japan had been lost.

The pride of success in defeating Russia was somewhat checked when
the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth came to be known. There was. to
be no indemnity, and Japan was not to get all the annexations, nor all the
great rewards of conquerors that had been expected. It could not be
generally known just how opportune the peace was and that Mr. Roose-
velt's timely intervention had barely rescued Japan's campaign from col-
lapse. Disappointment expressed itself in rage, in which Christian property
was destroyed and anger against America for a time mounted.

Materialism and blind nationalism swept the people. Agnosticism and
atheism swept the universities. Baron Kato, in 1907, delivered a powerful
attack on Christianity before the Imperial Academy, which was circulated
in a pamphlet and aroused much discussion. There was generally a repro-
duction of the situation of the previous decade. Japan was feeling the"
pressure of her overcrowded territory and her inability to carry the eco-
nomic load of the new order. Ambitions for expansion were hi conflict
with those of the Western nations. Christian principles seemed to prohibit
the methods of expansion, and yet had not restrained the " Christian na-
tions " from employing them. Within the churches there was a reassertion
of the independent spirit of the Japanese, with excessive demands for con-
trol. Presbyterian missionaries and their home boards/ especially, found it
difficult to compose these differences, and other denominations had similar
trouble. Liberalism in theology again asserted itself, and the unity and
harmony of the missions were strained. Buddhists entered Upon a fresh,
vigorous campaign to revive and reform their faith and to discredit Chris-
tianity. New native religions, formed by a sort of eclecticism, had a period
of popularity and rapid growth. This was especially true of Tenrikyo.

KOREA

Inasmuch as Japan came into virtual control of Korea at the close of
the Russian War, and formally annexed it in 1910, it will be fitting to
summarize missions in Korea at this point. Here was a condition far
different from that for the moment distressing missionaries and their

216 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

supporters in Japan. Korea had succeeded in holding out longer than
China or Japan as the "Hermit Nation." Gtitzlaff had touched one of
her ports and distributed tracts. In 1873 James Ross, Scotch Presbyterian
missionary at Mukden, had found it possible to work with Koreans at
the annual border market, where Manchuria and Korea exchanged their
products. He learned the language, translated the New Testament and
engaged Koreans as colporteurs to carry copies in. In this way some con-
verts were made, considerable numbers became Bible readers and were
waiting for some one to teach them more fully. Japan had made a trade
treaty in 1876. In 1878 Japanese Christians planned to open a mission to
Korea, but found it impracticable. In 1882, first the United States and
then other nations, secured treaties opening relations with Korea. In
1884 the Northern Presbyterian Board sent Dr. H. M. Allen from China
to be the first Protestant missionary. By his medical skill; for which there
was shortly need by a kinsman of the Queen, he won a way for missionary
work. Others quickly followed, but only different Presbyterian and
Methodist bodies, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the
iYoung Men's Christian Association. The success was gradual until 1895,
when the work began to grow rapidly, and Korea became "the modern
marvel of missions." 'Dr. H. G. Underwood, one of the first and most
notable missionaries and interpreters of Korea, said: "Very early in the
history of the work . . . God, in His providence, led us to adopt methods
that have been said by some to have been unique, but in reality are simply
those that have been adopted by numbers of missionaries in different parts
of the world. The only unique feature has been the almost unanimity with
which these have been followed by the whole missionary body in this land "
(The Call of Korea, p. 5, quoted from Glover, p. 106). Dr. Nevius, of
China, visited Korea in 1890, and the missionaries were led to adopt what
they called "the Nevius method." The aim from the start was to make
Korean Christianity as nearly as possible self-supporting, vitally evangel-
istic and thoroughly ethical.

To this end, each believer was to be a witness and a worker. The
churches were to be responsible for their own buildings and the salaries
of their evangelists and pastors. Each church was expected to maintain
a primary school. The missions would take the initiative and bear the
burden of schools of higher grade and for theological instruction. Great
emphasis was put upon Bible study, prayer and training for personal evan-
gelism; on sacrificial support of the work and the devotion of time to
the Gospel. Effort was made to keep the institutional side, with the equip-
ment, within limits which would enable the Korean Christians to support
and direct it.

Among the Presbyterian and Methodist bodies comity and co-operation
have been practiced to an extent little short of the ideals so often advocated
but rarely realized. The work has been characterized by steady, rapid
growth, with no periods of marked reaction such as are usually met, and
also some remarkable manifestations of revival and spiritual power. The
most notable such revival was in 1907.

When Japan took charge of Korea, this vigorous Christianity was in its

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 217

most flourishing stage. In 1907 there were more than one thousand self-
supporting churches, with thirty thousand communicants, one hundred and
twenty thousand adherents.

Japan was inexperienced in governing a subordinated people, and her
methods in Korea were oppressive and irritating. The administration were
suspicious of missionaries and Christians, and imposed upon them much
injustice. The material benefits of Japanese administration have- greatly
advanced the economic welfare. In the long run, it will be advantageous
for Koreans. But a proud people with an honourable history have been
harshly browbeaten, and there have been many examples of personal wrong.
In 1919 a Passive Resistance Revolution was inaugurated with a "Declara-
tion of Independence" and an extensive propaganda abroad. For a time a
mimic Korean Republic was conducted, with its officers and Congress, living
in Shanghai, where they were taking themselves quite- seriously. In Korea,
the "Rebellion" was put down ruthlessly and with needless oppression.
Missionaries suffered many indignities, some going to prison, and their
work no little interference. Finally the Japanese Government saw its error.
Since the coming of Count Saito to be Governor-General, in 1919, a new
method has been adopted, and Japan has learned to rule well.

Through all this, Korean Christians have emphasized the spiritual values,
and the helpless people have increasingly sought the consolations of the
eternal Gospel. Catholics, too, have grown rapidly and steadily. The
latest available reports show continued healthy growth, with more than
three thousand churches, above one hundred and ten thousand Protestant
communicants, total adherents of more than two hundred and fifty thousand.
In the last few years the growth in numbers has been arrested.

V. PERIOD Of ADJUSTMENT AND Stfm,#> PROGRESS,

From the partial and discouraging reaction there was gradual recovery
and renewed hope. While no one striking event marked the turn in the
tide, from about 1915 it became evident that Christianity in Japan had
become a recognized fact and a determinative factor in the life of the
people and in the course of the nation. Since then there have been no
violent or widely extended manifestations of opposition nor any sensational
features of advance. Rather, Christianity has settled down to a steady
acceptance of its place and task.

The period of proud superiority to all religion and of enthusiastic
sufficiency for the work of building a great secular empire did not last
long. It soon became evident that the national structure must be held
together by moral conviction and consecration, and that for this a religious
foundation was necessary. Devotion to universal education dominated by
patriotic passion continues, but by 1912 it was clear that education and
patriotism require to be grounded in religion. The Department of Edu-
cation called a conference of representatives of Shinto, Buddhism and
Christianity, in 1913, to counsel on meeting this need. So valuable was
this conference that it was made a regular method of the department. This
recognition of Christianity as one of the religions of Japan is significant.
Faith in the mission and method of Christianity in Japan, returned. Evan-

2i8 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

gelistic campaigns were renewed, and with marked success, in universities
and in the cities in what was called " concentrative evangelism." Early in
the century Japanese evangelists began to appear, comparable with Moody,
Torrey and others in America. These have continued to appear as the
work advances.

The holding of the World's Sunday School Convention in Tokyo, in
1920, attracted a great deal of attention, and was made the occasion for
erecting a national Sunday School building in Tokyo. For this, large sums
were given by Japanese who were not Christians, and the Convention was
patronized by men of the highest political and commercial standing. That
this was done in a way somewhat to compromise the uniqueness of the
Christian religion and its message is to be deplored.

We have seen how the organized churches in Japan tended to be inde-
pendent and indigenous from the very first. By the time we are now
considering this feature was generally recognized by the missionary forces.
By 1923, when the jubilee of Christian freedom was celebrated in a mild
and dignified way, there was a disposition to go quite too far in the appli-
cation of this principle. Many missionaries and some of the boards .began
strongly to urge that no more missionaries were needed in Japan, and that
many of those already there should return home. Some Japanese leaders
entertained this view. It was unfortunate that some of the Young Men's
Christian Association secretaries, who did not know the language and had
little practical experience, were particularly noisy in this agitation. It
served, however, to bring out the fact that Japan's eighty per cent of rural
village population had been almost wholly neglected by the organized mis-
sionary work. Also it brought forward earnest pleas of Japanese leaders
that American Christians would not desert the Japanese churches in their
enormous task a task which they visualized afresh in this semi-centennial
year and under the discussion of the question whether the work of missions
was not done. One recalls the intense earnestness with which President
Ebena answered the inquiry put to him hi an interview in Kariazawa, in
1923, whether if for ten years the force of missionaries should be main-
tained by supplying vacancies caused by death and retirement, we might
then gradually withdraw by leaving vacancies unfilled. His words were:
"Oh, by no means! by no means! Don't let the American brethren think
of leaving us alone. Send us more missionaries; better missionaries, but
more missionaries. We Japanese Christians are very, very weak. We are
weak numerically; we are weak financially; we are weak spiritually. Tell
the American Christians not to leave us to ourselves."

By this time attention was more and more drawn to the social task in
Japan and to the dependence upon Christianity for meeting that task.
The Japanese had waited for Christianity to take the lead and set the
example in relieving social distress, correcting social evils and reconstruct-
ing the social organism on the principles of justice and brotherhood. While
there was response to this challenge, both by Buddhism and by secular
movements, it still was true that about half of all organizations for this
purpose were openly Christian.

Griffis' testimony was unquestioned, as it was unquestionable, when, in

THE JAPANESE EMPIRE 219

1907, he said: "I could never imagine Bushido of itself alone, or Japanese
Buddhism, or Shinto, or the Government originating a Red Cross, a Peace
Conference, a system of hospitals, a Woman's University, the emancipation
and elevation to citizenship of pariahs and outcasts (eta and hiniri), freedom
of the press, the granting of full toleration of religion, or securing of real
representative political institutions. . . . These have been propagated, not
developed, from within. No, it is to the Spirit of Jesus that we are to
accredit most of what is morally superb in the New Japan. . . . Behind
almost every one of the radical reforms that have made a New Japan stands
a man too often a martyr who was directly moved by the Spirit of Jesus,
or who is or was a pupil of the missionaries" (Christ the Creator of the
New Japan. The last sentence quoted was printed in capital letters).

In 1907 The Japan Year Book, written by Japanese, said : " It is signifi-
cant that by far the greater part of private charity work of any large scope
is conducted by Christians, both native and aliens, and that the part played
by Buddhists in this direction is shamefully out of proportion. As to
Shintoists, they are privileged in popular estimate to keep aloof from
matters of the kind."

The recognition that so much remains of this social task has caused
Japanese Christians to desire continued aid, so long as it comes in the
right spirit. The rise of Kagawa, who combines essential Christianity and
social service in such remarkable balance and effectiveness, has giyen
great impetus to a practical Christian evangelism, and his steadfast refusal
of all official position, for which the Government has eagerly sought his
services, while at the same time he freely counsels with the Government
on problems of , labour, housing, farmer relief and other matters;, has given
him a moral leadership unequalled. His rich religious experience and
simple-hearted testimony to Jesus Christ gives powerful witness to the
worth of Christianity. The five-year-campaign of evangelism and reform,
begun in 1930 under his leadership at the solicitation of the National
Council, and named "The Kingdom of God Movement," represents a
revival of significant proportions and is influencing Christianity in other
countries. The objective is a million Japanese converts in five years, which
calls for great spiritual growth and stability in the two hundred thousand
members of the evangelical churches.

The transition from the Committee of Co-operating Missions to the Na-
tional Christian Council, in 1923, marks the majority of Japanese Chris-
tianity and relieves the tension between "the Mission" and "the Native
Church." The acceptance of its legitimate leadership by Japanese Chris-
tianity is the surest hope of counteracting the communistic tendencies evident
in Japan, as elsewhere, since the World War. In 1923 the evangelical
churches numbered one thousand six hundred and fifteen, with one hundred
and ninety-one thousand three hundred and forty-one communicant mem-
bers. One thousand five hundred and ninety-four missionaries, from sixty
societies, laboured with four thousand six hundred and sixty-seven Japanese
workers. The careful, scholarly review of the half century served to put solid
foundation of historic achievement underneath the Christian hope and effort.

In a country where literacy is almost universal and where reading is

220 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

more nearly universal than in any other country, literature plays a great
part in missionary work. Publication houses have produced an enormous
output of great variety and value. " Newspaper evangelism " has been used
extensively, and has been developed as a special method as in no other
country.

The status of Japanese Christianity at this time is suggested by the
following facts from the 1929 volume of The Christian Movement, including
only Japan and Formosa: Mission staff, one thousand one hundred and
seventy, of whom only two hundred and twenty-nine were ordained; total
native staff, four thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, of whom one
thousand four hundred and nine were ordained; one thousand eight hundred
and ninety-seven churches, six hundred and ninety-three being self-
supporting; one hundred and seventy-two thousand six hundred and .twenty-
seven communicants, of whom one thousand five hundred and sixty-seven
were added the preceding year ; contributions to Christian work, two billion
one hundred an4 thirteen million three hundred and sixty-one thousand and
seventy-nine yen; twenty-one theological schools, with seven hundred and
eight students, and fifteen training schools for women, with four hundred
and three in attendance.

XV
THE NEAR EAST

UNDER the vague heading of this chapter we shall include a brief
survey of Africa north of the Sahara, Egypt and Abyssinia, western
Asia from the Mediterranean to Turkistan, Greece, Macedonia, Bul-
garia and Turkey in Europe. The bond of unity for this territory is very
slight, being chiefly in the two facts, that this in a general way represents
the Turkish Empire at the height of its glory; and that, in the main, the
dominant religion is Mohammedanism. From the standpoint of missions,
it is here that Christianity must solve its problem of -coping with its most
aggressive religious rival, and the one which offers the most stubborn,
intolerant and violent resistance to Christian propaganda. There are,
furthermore, certain common features in the history of the missionary
effort in, these lands. It will be recognized, also, that this territory is
practically identical with what is known as the lands of the Bible.

There is no inner unity and little coherence among the numerous races,
languages, religions and national aspirations which are found in this area,
inextricably interspersed. For slightly more than one hundred years the
Turkish Empire has undergone a process of dissolution. In 1914 the only
thing that seemed practically certain to be the outcome of the War was
that the dissolution of Turkey would be completed, and that as a political
entity it would' cease to exist. Even at the close of the War, this still
seemed to be one of the things on which the negotiating nations might
agree at the Peace Conference. It developed that the ambitions and plans
of the French for their own future had caused them already to enter into
a secret understanding whereby they became the protagonists of a restored
Turkey with a guaranteed future. In this connection Mustafa Kemal came
forward with extraordinary diplomatic and administrative ability, and sur-
rounded himself with a body of able advisers and assistants. These
put nationalism and material rehabilitation above religion, and launched
their reduced Turkey, now nominally in the form of a republic, upon an
era of progress which has hardly been surpassed in any other part of the
world since 1920. It is clear that opportunity has been afforded for all
the territory in the former Turkish Empire to enter upon a new stage of
history with radical changes in politics, culture, economic life and religious
outlook. It is hardly yet possible to define conditions clearly in any section,
or to predict the outcome with any security. Revolutionary, and rapidly
working evolutionary forces brought about a condition of extensive con-
fusion which can only slowly be brought to equilibrium. When the Sultan
was deposed and exiled from Constantinople, v in 1922, the strongest bond
of unity in the Mohammedan world was destroyed." The weakness of that
bond had already been manifested by the utter failure to unite the Moham-

221 '

222 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

medan peoples in a "Holy War" against the Allies and in behalf of the
Central Powers. It has become necessary to seek for unity afresh in the
Koran and in emotional devotion to Mecca as the sacred seat of Islam. It
is already safe to say that there are too many modern ideals and ambitions
operating in opposition to these unifying factors for there ever again to be
any such Mohammedan unity as prevailed from the days of the Prophet to
the beginning of the twentieth century.

For almost thirteen centuries political power had been identified with
religious control. All other religions had been either exterminated or
merely tolerated. As a rule, the repression was so great that aggressive
life found expression almost impossible. Wherever Mohammedan political
power prevailed, all efforts at propaganda and the winning of converts
was strictly proscribed and effectively prohibited, while the adherents of
the dominant religion were held by a rigid prohibition of their perverting
to any other faith under penalty of losing entirely their personal identity.
From the sixteenth century every tolerated religion was represented in
Constantinople by its official head, through whom a considerable measure
of political responsibility, as well as religious authority, was administered
over all the members of his religious organization. No one was allowed
to change from any one religion to another, and one's political existence and
all the rights he might claim were conditioned on his being enrolled as a
member of his particular faith.

At the opening of the modern missionary era, the dominant Moham-
medanism claimed three-fourths of the population of the empire. Jews
were numerous and, on the whole, were increasing by immigration, es-
pecially in the latter part of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.
The Greek Orthodox Church was dominant in Greece and generally in
southeastern Europe, with large numbers in Asia Minor and Syria. With
their rehabilitation, Greece, Roumania and Bulgaria all developed national
Orthodox churches chiefly independent, but all recognizing the Patriarch
of Constantinople. Roman Catholics busied themselves during the nine-
teenth century in efforts to incorporate in their body as many of the
Christian groups as they could find access to. They were able to make
some headway with Armenians and Nestorians, to establish at Aleppo a
Patriarch of the Jacobites, and to win a considerable number of them. As
early as 1182 they had incorporated the Maronites, but had conceded to
them the use of the Syriac language, a considerable measure of independ-
ence, and permission for their inferior clergy to marry. From 1584 onward
there has been a college in Rome for training their clergy. Armenians and
Nestorians maintained their faith and organization with a persistence which
is remarkable under all the circumstances, in the face of repeated and
violent persecution. The Armenians particularly have suffered through
the centuries very terrible oppressions. In 1894-5 systematic massacres
occurred throughout their territory in Asia Minor, Syria and Persia. It will
be remembered that these massacres recurred in appalling fashion during the
World War, constituting one of the most horrifying outrages in history.

Besides these various types of Christians, there are also a number of
minor sects, usually with faiths mixed of Mohammedan, Christian and

THE NEAR EAST 223

pagan elements. Among these the most prominent are the Druses in the
Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon and Hauran regions, whose faith is made up of
elements from Hinduism, Mohammedanism, Gnosticism and Christianity;
the Nusairiyeh, closely allied to the Druses, but with Jewish elements, living
in the Lebanon Mountains; the Behaists, a Mohammedan sect with Hindu
theology and Christian ethics; Samaritans, a mere remnant still occupying
the ancient seat of this people.

All these various religions are not only exclusive, but as a rule are
antagonistic and frequently in violent conflict. "The young Turk Revo-
lution" of 1908 greatly modified the previous order; proclaimed religious
freedom, and was widely hailed as the inauguration of a new era of freedom
and progress. There was great rejoicing and much fraternizing among
the followers of the various religions for a brief period. It very soon
became evident, however, that there was to be no freedom for any except
Mohammedans, and that the aggressiveness which is so essential to a vital
Christianity was not to be realized.

Since 1890 Egypt had been under the actual control of Great Britain.
Although it has been declared independent and has its own formal gov-
ernment and administration, Great Britain will continue to give determi-
native " advice." It is necessary to recognize the political demand for less
of freedom in religion than would be ideal, in a country overwhelmingly
Mohammedan in its population, and considering the characteristic attitude
of that religion toward others and toward government. Yet there is a
gratifying measure of freedom for the rapidly growing Christian effort in
Egypt, and very recently this has been manifestly enlarging. Abyssinia is
largely under the influence of Italy. Hence the Roman Catholics are en-
couraged in their antagonism to Protestant efforts in that country. Nor is
the old Coptic Church very friendly toward such efforts.

The rest of northern Africa, under the influence of the Mohammedan
Berbers, complicated by the political relations and schemes of the European
powers, permits only very restricted Christian propaganda.

British mandate control and influence in Palestine, Irak, Transjordania
and the Hejaz, bring all these peoples consciously very much nearer to
Christendom and emphasize the Christian responsibility for them, as also
it increases the Christian opportunity among them. Christian progress
must, however, continue to be slow.

The French mandate for Syria has proven a rather thinly veiled annex-
ation, and has thus far been administered with little concern for human
needs or for Christian principles. Christian missions have been limited.
Armenia has a sentimental independence, but it is too much a part of
Turkey, too closely related to Soviet Russia" and too intimately involved
in the politics of the nations to have much of actual independence or of
security.

Persia is making progress and is inclined to give more freedom for Chris-
tian approach to Mohammedans and Jews, as well as to the Nestorians
among whom Christian missions have largely been restricted heretofore.

Beyond Persia the countries are as yet barely accessible to the bearers
of the Christian message. The visit of the King of Afghanistan to Europe,

224 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

in 1927, marked the beginning of a new era of enlightenment which must
still make very slow progress.

Turkey, retaining Constantinople as the centre of a reduced European
area, consists chiefly of Asia Minor, with the new capital at Angora.
Kemal, one of the most astute rulers and leaders in any land, is bringing
about reforms in government, economic life, education and culture, social
customs and religion, with almost bewildering rapidity, and gives prom-
ise of producing a modern nation. While he is a "liberal" within Mo-
hammedanism, he is, either from disposition or necessity, continuing
rather rigidly to restrict the operations of all Christian bodies and
movements.

COMPLICATED PROBLEMS FOR MISSIONS

It is extremely difficult to handle intelligently within the limits of this
work the missionary undertakings in the Near East. The geographic
and political divisions are so numerous and have undergone such extensive
changes within the modern period as to make this an unsatisfactory line
of approach. The racial and religious differences make it equally difficult
to use that as a basis, since they intermingle and overlap in confusing
degree in almost all of the territorial areas. It would be equally confusing
should we ..undertake to single out the various organizations which are
conducting missionary work in the Near East, because the various or-
ganizations have at different times undertaken and surrendered work in
different places; some stations have been transferred from one to another
organization in the course of their development; there have been differ-
ences and modifications in the attitudes of the organizations toward previ-
ously existing Christian churches; and there have been numerous minor
organizations undertaking various types of work in different areas, of pro-
portions too limited to find place in this record. Whatever principle might
be adopted, it would be impossible to go very much into detail in so
brief an outline and maintain any semblance of unity and progress in our
discussion.

It will be best first to take account of certain general features of the
missionary work in the Near East. First of all, while as a rule the various
organizations have undertaken to define their work territorially, it has been
necessary practically to work out the undertakings along lines that were
chiefly defined by race and religion.

Evangelism, in the ordinary missionary understanding of that term, has,
with rare exceptions, not been the major method here. (Nearly every-
where through almost the whole period it has been legally practically
impossible to win converts from Mohammedanism. Mohammedan political
authorities have consistently opposed popular and public evangelism, with
rare and brief exceptions, because this would tend to excite popular preju-
dice, with danger of uprisings, and because it would run directly counter
to the official policy prohibiting all transfer of religious affiliations. For
the most part the missionary policies have sought to avoid seeming to
discount the Christian character of any of the historical Christian churches
already present in these lands. The missionaries prefer to proceed on the

THE NEAR EAST 225

policy of recognizing the Christian character of these churches and assum-
ing that they needed only the correction of certain abuses in doctrinal
practice and support. It was a part of the theory that these churches
themselves would thus prove to be the natural and successful agencies for
the evangelism of the non-Christian populations, once their spirit had been
quickened and they had been brought to assume responsibility for the oppor-
tunities which surrounded them. That the fine sentiments underlying this
policy proved impracticable, and that the policy itself had, in considerable
measure, to be either abandoned or modified in the course of- development,
has nevertheless not caused the missionary organizations generally to em-
phasize the building up of Protestant churches in these territories.

EDUCATION THE CHIEF METHOD

Both this policy and the necessities of the case liave led to emphasis
on other lines of missionary activity. Educational missions have consti-
tuted the most effective means of service and instrument of progress.
The greater organizations have all laid the stress here. Beginning with
more elementary education, it soon became the policy to build up great
educational institutions in important centres. From these centres radi-
ated systems including all classes of schools from kindergarten up.
There are industrial, training, academic, medical and technical schools,
for both boys and girls. The education of women was an especially
open and useful field for influencing the life of all the peoples in these
countries. The educational policies of Protestant missions have stimu-
lated both the Mohammedan and the Christian sects to develop education
both for self-defence and because the Protestant examples showed to open
and progressive minds the real place of education.

- Four great institutions have been developed as centres of the great
Christian educational influence in major areas of the Near East. Upon
entering Constantinople, the American Board opened a grammar school
in 1834. Under the leadership of Cyrus Hamlm, this was developed
into a seminary primarily for the training of Armenian young men in
thoroughgoing Western education, by 1848. In the' light of his experi-
ence in the school and in the double crisis of the American Civil War
and the Crimean War, Hamlm was led to the conviction that a thorough-
going educational institution on the American pattern was the supreme
need and opportunity in Turkey. His board finding it impossible to
support his plans, Hamlm undertook to develop this independently. Win-
ning the support of Christopher Robert, a business man in New York,
who contributed altogether four hundred thousand dollars, Hamlin suc-
ceeded in making of Robert College a most influential factor in, modernizing
the Turkish Empire. The institution was affiliated with the New York
University.

In 1871 a boarding school for girls was founded in Scutari, which de-
veloped into the American College for Girls, a completely revolutionary
undertaking and a characteristic symbol of the difference between the
Protestant concept of womanhood and that of any other religion.

The Syrian Protestant College was founded at Beirut, in 1866, by Daniel

226 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Bliss, and became a major factor of Protestant influence and blessing
throughout Syria and far beyond. In 1921, under the Presidency of How-
ard Bliss, son of Daniel, the name was changed to the American Uni-
versity of Beirut, the scope of its operations having already justified the
name. The Emir Feisal, later King of Irak, justly said: "Dr. Daniel
Bliss . . . was the grandfather of Syria; his son, Dr. Howard Bliss ... is
the father of Syria, and without the education this college has given, the
struggle for freedom would never have been won. The Arabs owe every-
thing to these men."

In the same year, 1921, there was opened at Cairo the American Uni-
versity, a union institution, but in its development a product of the edu-
cational work in Egypt of the United Presbyterians, who had already one
hundred and eighty schools with sixteen thousand pupils. This institu-
tion is intended to be the centre for the most comprehensive effort ever
undertaken to minister the Gospel to the entire Mohammedan world. It
is fittingly located in the same city with Al Azar, for a thousand years
the training centre for Mohammedan propaganda. Here have been trained
for centuries vast numbers of heralds and advocates of Islam, the number
of students at one time reaching more than thirteen thousand, and for
many years averaging ten thousand. There can be no question that the
presence of a Christian University is largely responsible for the realiza-
tion on the part of the Egyptian Government that they must encourage
changes which are beginning to break up the traditional conservatisms of
Al Azar. The Koran is no longer the sole basis of the curriculum. Cer-
tain modern studies have been introduced, in spite of strong opposition;
and in 1930, for the first time, students were found in the classes wearing
clothes other than the characteristic white robe which had always been
required within these sacred precincts.

UTERARY WORK

Literary missions go hand in hand with educational missions. They
have been in some ways more far-reaching than the schools. The printing
press was a missionary instrument much relied upon from the very be-
ginning. First place has always been given to the translation and circu-
lation of the Christian Scriptures. Nowhere else in all the modern
missionary movement has there been such a record of devotion and
achievement in putting the Bible into all the languages of all the varied
peoples, and the painstaking and scholarly labour to see that these trans-
lations were made as nearly perfect as possible in each of the numerous
languages. Imperfect translations have been revised or abandoned. In
the case of Bulgaria, after efforts at meeting the demand in the different
dialects, Elias Riggs, with the help of Long, actually produced a "modern
Bulgarian language which proved intelligible to and popular with the
whole nation." In order that he might give the Word of God to the
entire people, Riggs continued to perfect this translation through a period
of forty years, until his death in 1901. So excellent was it that it sup-
planted all others. In other sections translations were made into the vari-
ous languages of the Mohammedan peoples, Turkish, Arabic and Persian;

THE NEAR EAST 227

and these were issued in the characters employed by the various sub-
divisions of the races. Similarly for the various Oriental churches there
is a remarkable story of translations into different forms of the Armen-
ian, Coptic, Ethiopian, Syriac, Greek, Albanian, Bulgarian, Ferrara for
the' Spanish Jews in and about Constantinople, and the Abyssinian
tongues. It is a remarkable record and makes a great story involving
names of men of great ability, American, German, British, and scholars of
other nationalities.

The circulation of these Scriptures provides another romantic story, in
which the great Bible societies played a major part, under which special
organizations were formed for carrying forward this work. It has been
possible for colporteurs to pioneer for the missionaries and often to dis-
tribute the Word of God in regions where no missionary might labour.
The Turkish Government continuously exercised a censorship over all
this work, with much annoyance and many amusing incidents growing
out of their jealousy and ignorant fear. Yet the reverence for learning
and literature provided a measure of freedom for this form of missionary
labour greater than that accorded to any other method.

Besides their own Bible, the missions have extensively published and
circulated the Koran, a rather disconcerting method of manifesting their
consciousness of the superiority of the New Testament.

Other religious literature of various kinds has, of course, been exten-
sively produced; and in many cases more general literature, especially
books and other materials required by the growing educational systems
of more recent years. Missionary literature has afforded challenge and in-
spiration for the literary renaissance, especially in Turkish and Arabic.

MUDICAI, AND SOCIAL

The Christian doctor, hospital and dispensary could locate and min-
ister where neither the evangelistic missionary, nor as yet the Protestant
school would be tolerated. They were not only forerunners of the more
advanced Christian institutions and an agency through which personal
and private evangelism could be conducted, but they introduced revolu-
tionary ideas of medicine, sanitation and hygiene, proving thereby a great
instrument of social welfare. Even in the present conditions, medical mis-
sionaries are often able to do more effective work than any others. Dr.
Paul Harrison, in Transjordania and lower Arabia, is an example.

Protestant orphanages and their ministrations of social relief have been
a favourable factor in breaking down prejudices, and in advertising the
humane influence of the Protestant faith. This has been especially mani-
fest in connection with the horrible massacres, the heartless transporta-
tions, the severe floods, famines and fires, which have from time to time
produced unspeakable conditions, whose relief was almost exclusively
dependent on the activities of the missionaries and the popular and official
interest in the countries which the missionaries represented.

MISSIONS TO SEPARATE REUGIOUS-RACIAI, GROUPS

It has already been made obvious that conditions have made it very

228 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

largely necessary that there should be much specialization in the approach
to the different classes. Mohammedans have been largely inaccessible on
account of both religion and politics. It has not usually been possible for
the same men and methods to be engaged in the efforts to reach them,
and at the same time to reach followers of other faiths. Splendid efforts,
with some results, are found in different sections, as also with frequent
persecutions and some serious disappointments. There have been a few
converts in Constantinople, m Syria and in Persia.

It is chiefly in Arabia, and more recently in Egypt, that efforts among
Mohammedans have been most extensively and consistently made. Ion
Keith-Falconer, already a distinguished Arabic scholar at Cambridge, in
1885 became greatly interested in Arabia. After a preliminary visit he
and his aristocratic wife, and Dr. Cowan, settled in Sheikh-Othman to
inaugurate an independent Church of England mission. His death, only
four months later, was followed by a challenge from his mother, who
proposed to provide financial support for any one who would take up
the work. The response came from the United Free Church of Scot-
land, which has carried on medical and educational work among Arabs
and Somalis.

The chief work in Arabia was originated in 1889 by J. G. Lansing, son
of a veteran missionary in Egypt. He was Professor of Arabic in the
Dutch Reformed Theological School in New Jersey. He and three, of
his students agreed to start a mission in Arabia. Failing to get the
support of their church, two of the number went out under the provision
of a special legacy, and opened stations in Basra, Bahrein and Muskat.
Their mission was taken over by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1894.
It has continued to the present day, and has gradually grown in impor-
tance and in its influence over other organizations, chiefly through the
untiring and able advocacy of Dr. S. M. Zwemer, who retired from the
work only in 1930 to take the Professorship of the History of Religion
and Missions in the Princeton Theological Seminary. By extensive travel,
continuous appeal through lectures and sermons, and a prodigious amount
of literary work, he has forced upon the attention of Christendom their
age-long ineffectiveness in the case of the Mohammedan world. His
books have made him a first-class authority in all things pertaining to
Mohammedanism.

The Church Missionary Society has contributed ably in the promotion
of Mohammedan work in Egypt, where the lamented Gairdner laboured
with extraordinary tact, scholarship, sympathy and patience, and gained
an influence which contributes largely to the hope of a new era of success-
ful presentation of the Gospel to the Mohammedan world.

It has usually been found impossible to minister to the Jews merely
as one element in the general population. They do not mingle with other
people, especially in religious relationships. In only a few places are
they found in sufficient numbers to justify any large undertakings in their
behalf. The Church of England, the undenominational London Mission
to the Jews, and the American Presbyterians have interested themselves
in them more extensively than any others. There have been an extraor-

THE NEAR EAST 229

dinary number of small independent and irresponsible undertakings, espe-
cially in Palestine. These were based largely on sentimental grounds and
on special elementary theories, and have been as ineffective as might be
expected. Moreover, almost all missions to the Jews have had some dis-
couraging experiences with converts who proved unreliable. From various
sections in recent years come reports of increasing numbers of Jews who
are perfectly accessible and are profoundly interested. In most such cases
there is little thought of open confession of Christianity and of acceptance
to membership in a Christian church at the expense of the inevitable
breach with the synagogue. Especially in certain of the north African
cities and in Egypt there are reported numbers of secret converts, and
occasionally there is a rabbi who freely fraternizes with Christian min-
isters and missionaries, and hi limited and cautious manner uses the New
Testament, even in the synagogues. It is impossible to estimate the value
of this form of approach to the Christian Gospel.

In most cases it was the definite purpose of Protestant missions not to
undertake to set up in the Near East Protestant churches in rivalry and
competition with Oriental churches. It was rather the hope that these
churches might be vitalized and reformed so as to make them morally
and ethically impressive and spiritually effective in the modern world.
In experience and practice this nobly impartial attitude was found not
possible to carry out. The masses of these Christians are ignorant, con-
servative and bound by tradition. The official organizations soon set them-
selves against the importation of Protestant evangelism and progress. Small
groups of those who accepted the evangelical view-point within the Armenian
and Nestorian churches were, after a little while, excommunicated.

There were some notable examples, both in Constantinople and in Persia,
of priests, and even of two or three patriarchs, who responded with genu-
ine enthusiasm to the spirituality and doctrinal simplicity of Protestant-
ism. Yet, on the whole, these ancient churches refused the evangelical
Gospel. In 1846 it was found necessary for the Protestant converts to
organize independently, and in 1855 tn e same step had to be taken by
Protestant excommunicates from the Nestorian Church. So soon as these
Protestant churches were formed it was necessary to take steps for polit-
ical recognition as an independent religious movement. Otherwise their
members would have no sort of political or economic standing. Those in
the Coptic Church in Abyssinia who responded to the evangelical spirit
experienced the same repression and persecution. In 1847, through the
instrumentality of the American Consulate, a form of recognition was
given to the Armenian Protestant Church in Constantinople, and from
1850 following, Protestantism was given distinct recognition as one more
religion within the empire. Even so, the chief Protestant organizations
have continued to try to bring about revival and reform rather than to
win proselytes from these historic churches. The post-war conditions
offer more encouragement in this direction. There is a new spirit of
life and progress with a new national outlook of the now relatively inde-
pendent nations. And, gratitude toward America and the Americans for
their very great help to the Christians in the empire during their days

2 3 o THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

of tragedy and of reconstruction, make for a more sympathetic hearing in
the countries with their friendly approach. The new conditions called
loudly for a more progressive and spiritual religion than these Oriental
churches have been able to manifest during the last thousand years. The
Protestant missions are, however, being promoted with renewed vigour
and success, and for a time at least the Protestant churches are likely to
grow more rapidly than at any time heretofore.

FORCES WORKING IN THE N^AR EAST

The missionary work in the Near East has been carried on most exten-
sively by American organizations. The Protestant nations of Europe
were all so involved in the complicated and antagonistic politics which
have been so intense in Constantinople and throughout Turkey that it was
not easy for European missions to operate freely. The American Board
early became interested in Turkey, and in 1819 appointed Pliny Fiske and
Levi Parsons with the original intention that their work should be amongst
Jews and Mohammedans, with Jerusalem as their centre. It very soon
developed that the task was both greater and more difficult than had been
anticipated, and that there was little hope along the lines they had planned.
Within six years, both these men had died in the work. But others were
forthcoming. Until 1870 this board included among its missionaries Pres-
byterians as well as Congregationalists, and developed extensive missions
in Turkey and Europe, Asia Minor and Syria. When the Presbyterians
took over the control of their own missionaries the territory was divided
along the line with the east coast of the Mediterranean. The work up to
that time had been developed in Syria chiefly by Presbyterians, who had
extended operations under their own board into Persia. Both these organ-
izations have been unusually efficient in the character of their missionaries.
They have had many men of the highest type of culture, training and prac-
tical efficiency, and many whose terms of service have extended over forty
or fifty 3'ears and more.

The United Presbyterians have made Egypt and Northern Africa their
particular field. They had begun as early as 1845, along with Irish Pres-
byterians, in Damascus, but sought wider territories, and began in Cairo
in 1854, from which base they have expanded their work and conducted it
with vigour and wisdom until the present.

The American Methodists undertook some work in European Turkey and
in Bulgaria.

Throughout the missionary history there has been a very large measure
of comity among the various American bodies conducting work in the Near
East. Beirut has remained the centre of the Syrian missions of the Pres-
byterian Church. Urumia has been their principal centre in Persia, with
Tabriz and Teheran growing in importance. At the present time Teheran
takes first place, and it is increasingly possible to work amongst Moham-
medans and Jews, as well as with the Nestorians, which constituted the
main field up to the present era.

Other American organizations have had work which was limited in
extent, spirit and in results.

THE NEAR EAST 231

The Church of England has naturally taken ^considerable interest, follow-
ing up the advance of British commercial and political progress. The
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was particularly active in the
Transcaucasian regions, and generally among the Mountain Nestorians.
For a time there developed an extensive Protestant movement here. It
was encouraged by the Russian Orthodox Church and promoted by an
Orthodox Mission Society, with headquarters in Moscow, and the Russian
Bible Society, both of which were in close co-operation with the mission-
aries of the Church of England. However, when the three Transcaucasian
countries were ruthlessly overrun and appropriated by Russia, the Prot-
estant work was suppressed. Now that three Soviet Republics in this
region are incorporated in the Soviet .Union, there is no opportunity. The
Church Missionary Society has taken extensive interest in Persia and in
Palestine, as also with definite interest in Bagdad. There has. been an
Anglican Bishop of Persia since 1912, where the work was inaugurated by
Dr. Bruce, on a visit from India, in 1869. From 1875 the society has
conducted and extended its work.

It is as yet too early to determine just what possibilities the new era in
the Near East will afford for detailed operations. It is certain that there
will be vastly more of freedom than at any time in the past. . Millions of
people are dissatisfied with their Mohammedanism. There a l re found in
this religion the same three movements which mark most of the religions
of the world today: an extreme liberal party more concerned with secular
and social progress than with the divine aspects of religion; the conserva-
tive party who see hope only in a return to the fundamental teachings of
their religion and vigorous pushing of the traditional doctrines and forms;
a third party, who seek to adjust the organization and the forms of the
religion to the modern needs of the progressive work. There is, on the
other hand, a greater interest in Christendom in this part of the world, and
particularly in the challenge of Mohammedanism, which from the Christian
view-point has in it no adequate resources for meeting the spiritual, cultural
and social demands of people beyond a certain stage which was long ago
reached in all lands where Mohammedanism was dominant.

At this time the spiritual resources of Christendom seem insufficient to
strike out upon fresh adventures in this large area, so unsettled and so
uncertain as to its future; insufficient also to cope adequately with the polit-
ical and secular ambitions and conflicts which arouse fear and resentment,
especially against European nations. The American and Presbyterian
Boards are devoting serious interest to the problems in this area, so preg-
nant of great possibilities. An unfolding opportunity in the Near East is
awaiting a spiritual revival within Christendom,

XVI
MALAYSIA

OUR studies have covered the continent of Asia, except its southeastern
section. It is best to include here not only the Peninsula and its
adjacent Islands, of which Singapore, Penang and Pankor are chief
in importance ; but Siam, both the native and the French sections ; and those
large Islands usually designated as the Dutch East Indies, Java, Sumatra
and Borneo; and also French Indo-China. The population is chiefly
Malay, with a very large element which is known under the general name
of the Tai peoples, who occupy especially the northern regions; and the
Dyaks and their primitive peoples on the Islands. The religions are
different forms of Animism; a large element of Buddhists, especially in
Assam, Annam and generally on the Continent; Mohammedans, who are
very numerous, especially in Java and Sumatra. In addition, there are
immigrants from China and South India, who have poured into these
regions in great numbers for more than a century. European peoples
are found in the commercial and political centres in all these regions, par-
ticularly in what are known as the Straits Settlements. They exercise a
controlling influence over the destinies of this part of the world; and are
themselves dominated by secularistic and worldly interests. All of this
makes a challenging but extremely difficult field for missionary operations.
Altogether these countries include a population of between fifty and sixty
millions.

In the chapter on China we have seen how the Straits Settlements were
selected as a base for approaching China during the days before even
Macao was accessible for the residence of Protestant missionaries. From
1813, when Milne went to Malacca, Protestants have conducted missionary
work in these regions. Presbyterians and Baptists were among the first
after the Congregationalists, who on their part, left this field for others.
Nor did the Baptists greatly extend their work.

From 1840 the American Presbyterians carried on work with Bangkok
as the centre. They relied chiefly on education and medicine as means,
inasmuch as the haughty and exclusive Buddhism, with its official patron-
age and support, had not given opportunity for much evangelism. From
1867 they turned their attention more extensively to the Laos, where their
first central station was Chiang Mai. After a period of slow progress and
of persecution, there ensued great prosperity, with almost mass turnings
from animism to the larger satisfactions of Christianity.

American Methodists have been extensively active in Singapore, where
their chief educational work is located; in Eastern Sumatra, where they
have amicably divided the territory with the Rhenish Society ; in Java, with

232

MALAYSIA 233

Batavia as the centre of the successful work; and in both British and

Dutch Borneo.

English Presbyterians have been particularly active in work amongst the
Chinese in the Straits Settlements, with whom they have had marked success
in building up vigorous congregations and in leading the Chinese Christians
into active missionary labours.

The Anglicans entered actively from 1857, operating at first hi the
Diocese of Calcutta. In 1909 they established the Diocese of Singapore.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has operated in Malacca,
Penang and in various provinces on the mainland. Their work includes
chiefly the Europeans and the Chinese and Tamil immigrants, but extends
also to the Malays. This society has also had, since 1854, an extremely
interesting work in British Borneo. Dr. McDougall had already begun
evangelistic and medical work in 1848, beginning with European and
Chinese, but extending his work from 1851 to the Dyaks at Batang.

The Roman Catholics, from the days of Portuguese occupation, have
operated extensively in various parts of Southeastern Asia and on the
Islands. They are quite strong in the various Straits Settlements, where
they have about forty thousand members, with churches for the various
race groups, carrying this policy of race recognition to an .extent quite
unusual with them. As early as 1662 they established a Vicarate of Siam.
By 1899 they had extended their interest to the Laos and established a
vicarate for them. The work is patronized especially by the Paris Society,
which supervises a membership of approximately fifty thousand. In French
Indo-China, the Catholics are encouraged by the Government and the Prot-
estants hardly allowed to work at all. The Catholics have a small work
in Sumatra. In Batavia the Jesuits have their centre, from which they
operate extensively and supervise the membership of thirty-five thousand
or more. In Borneo, after two failures, the Catholics began a continuous
mission in 1881 and have succeeded in gathering a following of about four
thousand.

From the extensive and superficially flourishing Dutch East India Mis-
sions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there remained, in 1900,
about one hundred thousand Christians, who were reorganized and made
the state religion of the Dutch administration. Besides this work of the
State Church, the Rhenish and a half dozen other missionary societies have
operated extensively through most of the Dutch Islands. The Rhenish
Missions have been the chief factor in working amongst the Mohammedans, '
from whom they have won between forty and fifty thousand converts. They
have also made some progress with the Dyak head hunters. It is greatly
interesting to connect this modern progress in these regions with the state-
ment of Cosmas in his Topographia (535 A. D.), that in Sumatra there was
" a Church of Christians where clergy and believers are found."

XVII
NEGRO AFRICA

WE included Africa north of the Sahara and southward through the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Abyssinia in the Near East. The
racial, historical and religious reasons for this will be obvious.
While there is a large Negro element in the population of the British
Sudan and Abyssinia, the dominant factors give to these regions a differ-
ent alignment from that of iNegro Africa. DuPlessis, the elaborate and
able historian of Christian missions in Africa, distinguishes between
" South Africa " and " Pagan Africa," the line of division being in gen-
eral the Zambesi River and westward along the southern border of
Angola. This distinction reveals a psychology based upon historical fact
and an established attitude. The fact is the ' occupation of the southern
section x of Africa by European nations and their colonies. This occupa-
tion began with the Dutch Colony at the Cape in 1662, for we may
practically ignore the earlier Portuguese contacts. The attitude is the
assumption that all this southern section of Africa is now and hencefor-
ward "white man's country." The actual control and the entire admin-
istration proceeds upon the theory of the primacy of British interests and
the permanence of white domination. On these grounds we might almost
as well include all East Africa, where already European interests are
determinative, the white occupation and domination rapidly extending,
and where it can be only a few decades at most, until the same conditions
will prevail which are now definitely accepted in South Africa.

The population of the central Pagan Africa is about seventy-five mil-
lions, practically half that of the entire continent. The inhabitants of
Egypt and Abyssinia are largely of Semitic origin, and the north African
states are occupied by mixed races with the same base. The Gallas, the
Somalis, the Masais and the Wa-Himas are now classed as Hamitic and
are distinguished from the Negroes who occupy the rest of Africa, in-
cluding the central and western Sudan, and hence southward. From
Sierra Leone southward through West Africa are the typical Negroes,
with whom America is most extensively acquainted. 'Distributed over
most of central and south Africa are the Bantu peoples, markedly the
highest Negro type. Some of these are to be met with in America, and
are readily to be recognized by those informed about their characteristics.
Hottentots and Bushmen in southwestern Africa are an inferior group
constantly being reduced in numbers.

While there are various Bantu languages, there is a similarity in vocabu-
lary and grammar which establishes a definite racial unity. Among the
other tribes there is " a very Babel of confused speech," with bewildering
confusion of languages and dialects which are appalling for the missionary,
and which have challenged the most devoted and persistent consecration

234

NEGRO AFRICA 235

to the task of making available the Word of God for all these millions
of primitive peoples. In literally scores of cases the very first conception
of a written language was offered to the tribes by the missionaries, who
reduced their speech to written form and have given them the beginnings
of a cultural history. In this work the Bible societies, especially the British
and Foreign, have performed heroic and faithful service.

A volume of thrilling stories could be prepared of missionaries and
their methods in learning the speeich of these primitive peoples, and in
adapting their vocabularies to the carrying of the divine message of re-
demption and progress. The languages and dialects of Africa calling for
separate treatment are between five hundred and six hundred. Glover,
indeed, affirms "that five hundred and twenty-three distinct languages and
three hundred 'and twenty dialects have been identified in ... the Dark
Continent."

The Mohammedans occupying North Africa and pressing down into the
central regions number about fifty millions.

Whether Africa is to be Mohammedan or Christian is to be determined
within this century, and largely within the next two or three decades.
Here, as nowhere else in the world, are the two religions to be compared and
contrasted in their capacity for redeeming and civilizing while they Com-
pete for the adherence of Africa's pagan millions. It ought to be recog-
nized at once that the major question for Christians is not, which shall
gain the larger following, but which can bring salvation from savagery,
ignorance and sin, and progress in the attainment of human values, social
realization and economic welfare. Both religions are hampered in mis-
sionary ministry by their connection with secular advances. Both religions
are so manifestly superior to the crude and cruel animisms that their
appeal is powerful; but both are associated with more highly organized
civilizations whose people and nations are engaged in exploiting the
Africans. How this hinders the acceptance of the higher faith is remark-
ably shown in the fact that in East Africa, where Arabs have been longer
known, Christian missionaries are relatively more successful, while in
western regions, where European contacts have existed longer and been
more extensive, the more recently arrived Mohammedans gain more rapidly.

The fact that "Christian" countries are now pressing their contacts
on Africa and their domination of its life, makes it imperative that
these contacts and this rule shall be outstandingly Christian if they are not
to prove a serious barrier to the way of Christ in the African heart.

Apart from the changes which have been brought about by Moham-
medan and Christian missions, the religions of Africa include all forms
and aspects of Animism. Here one meets with every type of nature
religion, fetishism, witchcraft and demonolatry. Ignorance, superstition,
idolatry and primitive immoralities are found in varying degrees in all
sections. Thus Pagan Africa has presented to Christianity its greatest
problem and corresponding opportunity for delivering fellow-men from
the power of darkness into the liberty, light and freedom of the sons of
God. This is a task which was long neglected.

In another connection we have given a brief story of the Roman

z$6 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Catholic Missions which began at the end of the fifteenth century, but
which accomplished nothing permanent for the bringing of Pagan Africa
into the knowledge of Christ. Even in more modern times, when the
Catholics have undertaken work in various sections, for the most part
they either failed or achieved only moderate success. Amongst the purely
Negro populations they have not manifested capacity for grappling with
the problems. Even some of their own writers testify to their failure.
Altogether, the Catholics, with approximately three thousand missionaries
in Negro Africa, have, as yet, a very small number of native priests, but
claim approximately a million and a half adherents. For some reason,
Roman Catholics have never seemed profoundly interested in Negroes.
Even in the United States, where one would have expected that they
would find a great field, they have not until very recent times made any
consistent and sustained efforts or won any extensive following. There
are indications, however, of a new era of Catholic missionary operations
amongst these peoples.

OPENING UP DARK AFRICA

Until about the middle of last century, Africa remained the "dark con-
tinent." Of course, north Africa has been continuously known to Europe
and western Asia. The east coast was early explored by Arabs to a
point opposite Madagascar. The west coast was touched at various
points by the Portuguese from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries,
but there was no extensive exploration. The climate of West Africa is
deadly to white men, except under modern scientific handling; and the
fact that all the rivers were inaccessible beyond a short distance from the
coast, by reason of the rapid rise of the land to the interior tableland,
hindered exploration.

South Africa proved more accessible and more inviting than any other
section. Portuguese effected settlements along the Zambesi more than
three hundred miles inland, from the middle of the sixteenth century. The
Dutch occupied Capetown in 1652, and continued to develop their coloniza-
tion until the coming of the British in the nineteenth century. The Dutch
called Boers in South Africa moved northward and continued their
history until their two republics were incorporated in the British Em-
pire by the Boer-British War, 1900, and organized as a part of the Com-
monwealth of South Africa, in 1908. South Africa thus gradually came
to be regarded as a "White-man's Country," and its missionary history
falls largely under a separate category.

After the early Portuguese contacts in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies, the west coast was not occupied by Europeans except at bases for
the iniquitous slave trading, which continued to the middle of the nine-
teenth century. Exploration was resumed in 1795, when Mungo Park
undertook his heroic explorations of the Niger country for eleven years.
Richard and John Lander aroused great excitement in England by their
explorations and discoveries from 1827-34. The opening up of all this
section was completed by Du Chaillu, 1857-65. The modern opening of
East Africa properly begins with the work of the German missionaries,

NEGRO AFRICA 237

under the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Krapf
(1839-53) an d Rebniann (1846-75). Failing in their efforts to reach
the Abyssinians and Gallas, they undertook to advance inland from Mom-
bosa. They gave the first approximate information concerning the extent
and nature of East Africa; discovered Kilima Njaro, and, on the basis of
what they regarded as necessary inferences, announced that there was an
inland sea in the heart of Africa; projected wise plans for Christian mis-
sions and awakened considerable enthusiasm for the idea of an "Apostle-
strasse," a missionary highway across Africa from east to west. Speke
and Burton (1847) were joined by Grant, in 1860, in their explorations,
to which Cameron added the completing work from 1875.

The Sudan had long been penetrated by Arabs in the pursuit of their
slave trade. Richardson and Barth entered on explorations from 1849,
and Rohlfs in 1864-67. This region continues to attract explorers and
adventurers down to the present day, when modern scientific knowledge
and appliances make it far less dangerous and irksome than formerly.

Central Africa is especially the gift of missions to the world's knowl-
edge and to European exploitation. Robert Moffatt, of the London
Missionary Society, led the way from 1837, to be followed by David
Livingstone, whose name heads the list of heroes of both missions and
exploration on the African Continent. His thirty-three years of remark-
able labours are perhaps without a parallel in the annals of adventure,
during which, without any sort of personal ambition, he made a name
whose influence is unsurpassed in modern history. He devoted his life
with great humility and absolute courage to the service of Jesus Christ
in behalf of the most backward and neglected of the sons of man. Indi-
rectly and unintentionally, he opened the way for much of British expan-
sion in Africa. He exerted supreme influence in bringing about a revulsion
of Christendom against slavery and the slave trade, with its horrors and
iniquities. He inspired great extension in the knowledge of primitive
peoples and languages. All this he did as a missionary of the Christ of
the Cross. The third name forever linked with those of Moffatt and
Livingstone, is that of Henry M. Stanley. It is well known how, as a
newspaper correspondent, he was sent, in 1871, by the New York Herald,
to find Livingstone; how his meeting with Livingstone in the heart of
Africa and Livingstone's attitude brought to Stanley a new interpretation
of Jesus Christ and of human devotion to Him; how from that time
onward Stanley was himself imbued with the missionary spirit, and in a
second period of exploration, 1876-79, carried to completion the work of
Livingstone and left Africa open to the gaze of the world, with all its
varied challenge.

TWO CLASSES OP PROBLEMS

In all these regions the history of Africa has continued to be largely
a story of the development of commerce, territorial appropriations and
empire building. It is also a story of the grappling of Christian missions
with the grave problems of Africa. These problems are of two classes.
First, there are the superstitions, the inhumanities, the cruelties, the filth,

238 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

the idleness, the abuses of women, the neglect and cruelties toward chil-
dren, all the abominations of the massed heathenism. Second, there are
the problems which were brought by the Europeans in their invasion of
Africa. There were the inevitable problems of the impact of an advanced
civilization upon undeveloped peoples. There were the more serious
problems of the vices, injustices and evils inflicted by selfish exploitation
in the interest of gain. There were problems inevitably incident to the
occupation by Europeans of territory which had previously been in pos-
session of the Africans. Then there were the problems of empire building,
growing out of conflicts between the various land-grabbing peoples, and
conflict of interests between the whites and the blacks. As someone has
facetiously remarked, when the conscience of Christendom compelled the
white man to leave off stealing Africans from Africa, he proceeded to
steal Africa from the Africans, a procedure which has almost been com-
pleted. Until 1884, such European governments as were prepared for it
made their independent incursions into African territory, staked out their
national claims and selected- settlements which pre-empted for them ever
increasing sections of the continent. British, French, Belgians and Portu-
guese were foremost in this. By this time the interests of these various
powers were overlapping and encroaching upon each other; and the
recently constituted German Empire was eagerly entering the field to
press her belated claims. In order to avoid friction, while they proceeded
to the complete partition of Africa, the nations came together in the
famous Berlin Conference, 1884-5. With maps of the continent before
them, they proceeded to allocate among them all that remained of Africa,
agreeing to respect each other's rights, to maintain open trade privileges,
and not to interfere with one another in the carrying forward of their
work. The rights and interests of the Africans in the territory were
wholly ignored, although there was at least a verbal commitment to con-
sidering in all cases the moral and material welfare of the Africans. . For the
next fifteen years these powers proceeded with a fair degree of freedom from
strife with each other, while each country proceeded in the appropriation of
its territory, making conquest over whatever native opposition might arise.

At the end of the century, British interests and ambitions were seriously
encroaching upon the rights and claims of the Transvaal and the Orange
Free State. The imperial programme of Cecil Rhodes, the great British
empire builder in South Central Africa, and the location of the diamond
mines, carried British interests over the Boer borders. The Boers had
already trekked all the way from the Cape, hi two great migratory move-
ments, to make room for the ever-progressing British. They could not
go further. For one hundred and fifty years they had been content quietly
to reap the natural benefits of an inviting land, while they almost wholly
disregarded the natural and human rights of the Africans, whom they
ever drove out of their own way or impressed into slave service in the
interest of the invaders. When the diamond mines were discovered/ the
Boers were content to allow their riches to be developed by more pro-
gressive Uitlanders (foreigners), while they retained legal regulation of
their operation and drew rich royalties from all the output. The foreigners

NEGRO AFRICA 239

had no voice in the laws regulating their rights and privileges within the.
territory of the governments. Conflict was inevitable. In any case, a
people who can for decades use, for cattle grazing, lands under which lie
the richest mineral deposits in the whole earth, cannot permanently remain
in ownership and control; a people who ruthlessly disregard the natural
rights of backward peoples will be replaced by those who will prove better
stewards. The British-Boer War aroused against the British Government
great resentment in Great Britain, in America, and in other 'parts of the
world. The outcome, especially with the formation of the Union of South
Africa, in 1908, greatly simplified the growing problems of European occu-
pation in Africa.

The World War introduced a new crisis in Europe's African occupa-
tion, and is very greatly affecting the progress of Christian missions.
Germany's colonies were expropriated and placed under mandate of France,
Great Britain and the South African Union. Germany could not be
expected to remain content with this arrangement, and the League of
Nations will yet have no little trouble with readjustments which must
inevitably be made.

FOR SPIRITUAL REDEMPTION

It is in the face of all the complications of this century of advance of
Europe into Africa that we must consider the efforts of the Christian
churches to bring about the spiritual redemption of Africa. With the
numerous races, religions and political divisions it is quite impossible to
find any unity for the treatment of Christian progress in Africa. There
are very few features which are common to the entire continent. The
development of mission work in a multitude of smaller or larger areas
has been almost wholly independent of that in other areas. Earlier Prot-
estant attempts from 1737 to 1800 have been sketched already. From 1795
Protestant efforts followed very largely along the general idea of colonial
missions, at least until the death of Livingstone, in 1873. From Living-
stone's death until about 1890 we meet with numerous tentative efforts
of a Christendom aroused to enthusiastic effort to respond to the call of
Africa. By degrees permanent allocations were established by various
boards and societies, the situation and opportunities came to be generally
understood, after which there was, generally speaking, what we may call
a settling down into progressive effort to evangelize and Christianize this
great continent, so long neglected by the Christian Church.

Before undertaking brief summaries of work in various sections, it is
well to call attention to certain features which apply more or less gener-
ally to the African undertakings.

It has already been indicated that the aggressions of politics, trade and
empire have seriously interfered with the activities and with the successes
of missionaries in Africa. During the period of Dutch occupation in
South Africa, no religion was tolerated save that of the Reformed Church,
and that church took almost no interest in the evangelization of the Africans.
When the British displaced the Dutch at the Cape, in 1799, they were no
more tolerant and very little more interested in giving the heathen the

240 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Gospel. During the brief period of reoccupation by the Dutch, 1802-1806,
they reversed their rigid policy of the preceding one hundred and fifty
years and permitted Catholic priests to locate at the Cape, in 1805. These
were forced out by the British when they took charge again in 1806. They
were permitted to re-enter in 1820, but for a long while with permission
only to minister to the foreign Catholic population, without making any
efforts at missionary work.

Portuguese and French have constantly made Protestant work extremely
difficult when it was permitted at all in territory under their control, and
have put limitations on the work of Catholic missionaries whenever these
have interfered with their unjust and inhuman treatment of the natives,
which, alas, has been all too seldom.

Germans encouraged German missions in their own territories, limited the
operations of Protestants from other nations, and restricted Catholic oper-
ations until 1905.

The exploitation of the weaknesses and depravities of the primitive
peoples in the interest of base gain has, in Africa, been one of the most
shameful exhibitions of the depravity of men from so-called Christian
lands with a greed for gain that threw aside their consideration of hu-
manity. Millions of gallons of intoxicating liquors continue to flow into
Africa. Often when, as notably in the case of the remarkable King
Khama, African rulers have sought to protect their people from the
debasing influence of American and European traders, they have been
disregarded and overridden. Almost always the ships that have carried in
missionaries have carried articles of trade which were calculated to debase
the already degraded peoples and to hinder efforts at their deliverance.

There has been little hesitation on the part of foreigners at taking ad-
vantage of the ignorance and helplessness of the natives in the further-
ance of their own aims. Even when the conscience of Christendom had,
by the middle of last century, compelled the cessation of slave trading,
enforced native labour under most destructive conditions continued and
increased. The agitation and investigation which uncovered before the
world the unspeakable horrors which were perpetrated under Belgian ex-
ploitation in the Congo Free State resulted in modification of the worst
features of this iniquity, but did not abolish it. Disregard for the rights
of the natives has been no less flagrant and destructive in numerous other
instances in various parts.

Indian immigration has complicated the Christian task, as well as eco-
nomic and political conditions, in large sections in the south and east of
Africa.

Death has taken a heavy toll of missionaries to Africa. The conditions
of the west coast long decimated the ranks of the volunteers, which, how-
ever, seem never lacking in recruits. Even to the present day the death
rate remains pathetically high from the Gold Coast to the Congo, and
few are the missionaries who can survive the climate for periods of' long
service. The conditions in Africa make such an emotional appeal that
there have been a number of unenlightened attempts at evangelization.
A long and tragic story could be written of the private and limited

NEGRO AFRICA 241

organizations which have sent out poorly equipped workers with little
knowledge of the conditions into which they were going, and with a
blind faith in miraculous or magic protection of their lives and equip-
ment for their work, who wasted their efforts and in very many cases lost
their lives without accomplishing any permanent results.

The conditions in Africa call for a larger measure of industrial mis-
sionary undertaking than in other lands. This form of missionary work
has played a very large part in missionary method. A few missions have
undertaken to make themselves self-sustaining while introducing the arts
and forms of civilized life amongst the pagan peoples. These have usually
been unable to maintain themselves and have had either to abandon the
effort, or to procure support from home bases. Yet industrial missions
have constituted a very important factor in most of the normal mission-
ary undertakings in Africa. It has been possible in numerous instances
for the missions partly to sustain their work by means of the output of
the students in industrial arts. Recently an interesting proof of the success
and value of such missions has been brought out in East Africa, where,
after years of missionary training, the life of the people had been so
changed that the shops and factories of the missions have found them-
selves in hurtful competition with private industries, and were under the
necessity for restricting these lines of work.

All forms of educational missions have been introduced into Africa.
There have been extensive discussions about the types most appropriate
under the conditions that obtain. Obviously elementary education was
absolutely necessary, and continues to be a compelling need. Natives have
been employed in primary and in secondary schools, often with only the
slightest preparation for their work. Doctrinaire criticism of such
schools and such teaching are easy, but Donald Fraser is right in insist-
ing that it is still true that the " Bush School," even with its very modest
equipment and with its teacher poorly trained, remains the most powerful
factor in bringing about the civilization of Africa and the greatest hope
for a moderately intelligent Christian following. Fraser intelligently
recognizes that this does not obviate the necessity for schools of all grades
of curriculum and equipment. There must be the widest adaptation of
resources to needs. Increasingly there must be the highest educational
training, both in general culture and in educational equipment for Chris-
tian leadership, and that both for the ministry and for the general direction
of an ever-growing civilization and culture.

AFRICANS FOR MISSIONS IN AFRICA

From the beginning of the modern missionary movement from time
to time efforts have been made to use Africans as missionaries in Africa.
One of the earliest efforts was to send African youth to England for edu-
cation, that they might return and lead their own people. Africans from
the United States have from time to time been sent by the societies of
the white denominations. In limited measure the Negro churches in the
United States have undertaken missionary work. There have been some
notable successes in these efforts. On the whole, however, they have

242 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

not been satisfactory. Even in the case of the once famous Bishop
Crowther, of the English Episcopal Church, Canon Robinson confesses
disappointment and pronounces "the experiment of placing an African
Bishop to supervise a mission . . . must regretfully be admitted ... an
almost complete failure." That was forty years ago. With the increase
in experience and the growing background, and the general improvement
of conditions, natives are showing themselves far more capable of leader-
ship. While there are not yet many Aggreys, it is most encouraging to
find that there are some.

"The Ethiopian Movement" has had a number of different exponents,
among them the African Methodist Episcopal Church, originated by
Negroes who seceded from the Methodist Society of Philadelphia, in 1787.
In 1816 they formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1900
this church set aside L,evy Coppin as "Bishop and Chairman of the
South African and Transvaal Conferences." He was to connect himself
with an Ethiopian Movement that began in the Transvaal among the
Basutos, in 1886. This movement, in 1892, came under the leadership
of one Makone, an ordained Wesleyan, who led in the establishment of
"The Ethiopian Church." There were various other secessions from the
English Wesleyan missions. An effort was made to unite them all in a
Christian movement independent of the various Methodist missions. Char-
acteristically, these Negroes were not able to hold together. A division
.was led by Dwane which established relations with the Anglican Church
at Capetown. This movement for religious independence was looked upon
with fear and disfavour by the various South African political govern-
ments. These governments undertook to deal with the movement jointly,
in 1903-4. The report of their commission is extremely interesting in
its effort to avoid violation of the rights of religious liberty, while at
the same time seeking utterly to discourage any such movements. They
advise strongly against them, but suggest no repressive measures except
to provide "that no minister of religion should solemnize a marriage
without being licensed as a marriage officer." Of course, such licenses
would be difficult for the objectionable ministers to obtain.

OUTLINES FOR THE VARIOUS AR^AS

We must now briefly summarize the missionary history in the various
geographical areas. It would be too confusing to undertake to lead the
reader through these in chronological order. While it would be inter-
esting to take up each of the missionary agencies and outline its work,
this would involve jumping and skipping in a way that would leave only
confusion in the end; and among the scores of organizations, some of
them ephemeral, it would be quite beyond the limits of our space to con-
sider them all. Perhaps the best one can do is to begin with Spanish
Negro Africa, on the northwest, and follow the coast and the coastal
approaches around the continent until we reach Uganda. We shairinclude
in this chapter also brief outlines concerning Madagascar and Mauritius.
While these islands are not African in their population or in their native
history, they are closely related to Africa in their European connections.

NEGRO AFRICA 243

NORTHWEST

North of Sierra Leone lie territories held by Spain, France and Great
Britain including Senegambia, Guinea, Gambia and Dahomey. In these
regions the English Wesleyans have operated in a small way since the
early part of the nineteenth century; the Paris Society since 1855, an <l
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the latter part of the
century. Aggressive efforts at extensive evangelization have been lacking,
and the results small. The Roman Catholics have had more extensive
work, but even they have only twenty to twenty-five thousand members
in a total population of twelve millions or more.

Sierra Leone was selected in 1786 by some English enthusiasts inter-
ested in founding in Africa a home for freed slaves. They hoped in
this way to encourage the movement of liberation, to build up a profitable
colony, and to form a base from which Christianity and civilization might
be extended widely amongst the natives. The first group of four hun-
dred Negroes and sixty Europeans was carried out in 1787 from England.
In 1792 eleven hundred and thirty-one Negroes arrived from Nova Scotia
under the direction of John Clarkson. The first group proved utterly
unfit, and various discouragements and disappointments attended the effort.
It was a complete financial failure, and- in 1807 the British Government
took over the enterprise, in the same year in which the British slave
trade was abolished. With great patience and persistence a successful
colony was ultimately established, and the Fourah Bay District is now an
important centre of British occupation.

Among the Nova Scotia freedmen were a number of Methodists. These
established relations with English Wesleyans, and asked for preachers to
be sent. The first response brought no preachers, but some mechanics
who were expected to form a Christian colony and establish friendly rela-
tions with the Methodist (Negroes. These men were unfit for their task,
and did more harm than good. In-i8n, however, a genuine missionary
approach was made, and has continued to the present day. The move-
ment lacked aggressiveness and never extended very widely. With the
centenary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, 1913, new life was pro-
jected into the undertaking. The centre of these operations has from the
first been Freetown.

More important have been the operations of the Church Missionary-
Society. The Scottish societies at Glasgow and Edinburgh selected this
as their first field, in 1797, and sent out six missionaries, one of whom,
Peter Greig, was the first African missionary martyr of Protestantism,
being murdered by the natives after only a year of service. Three of
the others fell victims to the climate, and the other two returned to Scot-
land. This undertaking attracted the attention of the Society for Mis-
sions to Africa and the East, which was until 1814 the name of the Church
Missionary Society. Unable to find missionaries in their own church,
they procured from time to time a number of Germans out of the seminary
of " Father " Janicke, at Berlin. Their missionaries continued to labour
amongst the African freedmen, being encouraged particularly by Edward
Bickersteth, an able lawyer who visited the colony in behalf of the society,

244 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

in 1816. Schools were established and the Fourah Bay College began
its work in 1827, with Samuel Crowther as one of the six students. One
of the Germans, Jansen, proved a great religious leader, and brought about
a powerful movement of genuine Christianization. He died at the age of
thirty-four, after only seven years of service, but had wielded an influence
most remarkable. In spite of severe losses and much discouragement and
criticism, the society continued its operations and, in 1860, was able to
recognize the independent " Church of Sierra Leone," with nine independent
congregations with their own pastors. The society continued its missionary
work with four parishes not yet ready for independence. Seven years
later all the congregations were under the control of the native church,
the society continuing in educational work.

Besides these two outstanding missions, the American African Meth-
odists, the Friends and the American Missionary Society, which passed
over its work to the United Brethren in Christ, in 1855, and the Paris
Missionary Society have conducted missions to a limited extent in these
regions. The Roman Catholic missions have not been extensive.

Liberia takes its name from the purpose of the American Colonization
Society (1816) to found here a colony for freed American Negroes. Some
twenty thousand of these were transplanted first and last. In 1847 it was
declared an independent state, ambitiously modelled after the United States.
These American Negroes were located in the midst of some two million
natives, whom they have undertaken to dominate. The Americans were
almost all nominally Christian, but have never proven an aggressive Chris-
tian force, nor have they assumed a proper attitude toward the original
Africans. Even in 1931 it became necessary for the United States Gov-
ernment, which has always acted as a sort of patron of the enterprise, to
make very emphatic representations to the government in Monrovia, de-
manding the discontinuance of slavery.

The Colonists were Methodists and Baptists, and carried their pastors
with them. Two of these, Lott Carey and Colin Teague, founded a Baptist
mission in West Africa. Carey was a man of great force and consecration.
In 1835 the Baptist General Convention sent two white missionaries and
continued working in this field until 1856. Since that time Baptist work
has been mainly represented by the Lott Carey Missionary Society and the
National Baptist Convention (Negro).

. Other efforts were undertaken by the Basle Mission, the American Pres-
byterians, the American Methodists, the American Board of Commission-
ers, the Protestant Episcopal Church and the United Lutherans. Of these,
the Methodists are most important. Upon the organization of the Methodist
Missionary Society, in 1833, Melville B. Cox was sent to Liberia. He
. died within four months, but his last words : " Though a thousand fall, let
not Africa be given up," sent a thrill of devotion which stirred the Meth-
odists to continue their effort. In 1887 Bishop William Taylor imparted
fresh impetus with his great scheme for missionary colonies throughout
West Africa, from Liberia to Angola. This wild scheme was, of course,
a pathetic failure. It fell to Bishop Hartzell to reveal to his church the
true state of affairs and to lead it into serious and sane missionary work.

NEGRO AFRICA 245

The Liberia Methodist Conference is a wholly self-supporting church in
Monrovia, where there is located also "The College of West Africa." A
number of schools are conducted, and there is a membership of about eight
thousand. It cannot be said that the experiment of Christian colonization of
Africans has been a success from the standpoint of Christian missions.

The Ivory Coast, under the French, has not been a Protestant mission
field. The Roman Catholics, since 1895, have conducted a moderately
successful work, with a few thousand followers. Dahomey, also a French
colony, has seen only slight Protestant work under the British Wesleyans.
The Roman Catholics have laboured since 1882, and with increasing en-
couragement in recent years.

The Gold Coast, under the British, has been occupied by the Wesleyans
and by the Basle Missionary Society. The Wesleyans began in 1834, in
response to the request of a group of native youths for some one to direct
them in the study of the Word of God. The heavy death rate made it a
practical impossibility to evangelize widely with missionaries from England.
A training school was established at Cape Coast for preparing a native
ministry of teachers and preachers, which became an institution of great
importance when the British Government began later to develop an edu-
cational system. Since the scientific conquest of climatic dangers it has
become possible for Europeans to occupy the field in much larger num-
bers, and the work has shown great prosperity. During the World War
there arose a native by the name of Harris who created a great stir as a
" prophet " and preacher of repentance. There resulted one of the mass
movements which present such serious problems for Christian missions.
In six years, by 1919, the missionaries baptized more than thirty-six thou-
sand adults, and had fifteen thousand more in preparation for baptism the
next year.

The Basle Mission made repeated heroic efforts, and finally succeeded
in establishing a successful work in five different districts. The mission
was first undertaken in 1827. Its definite success did not begin until 1868.
At the outbreak of the World War the mission amongst the Ashanti was
experiencing great progress, with twenty-four thousand communicant mem-
bers, a large number of stations and a rapidly increasing number of compe-
tent workers. Of course, the War seriously interfered. The United Free
Church of Scotland undertook to supervise its continuance.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, although the first to
undertake missionary work in West Africa, through Thomas Thompson,
who went to West Africa in 1751 as a chaplain, has never proven an ag-
gressive missionary force in this region. It has been, for the most part,
content to minister to the membership of the Anglican Church, made up of
colonists and Africans immediately associated with the life of the colony.

The North German (Bremen) Society began work oh the slave coast
in 1847. For thirty-seven years it devoted itself mainly to cultural mis-
sions and had gathered only two hundred and fifty converts through the
efforts of one hundred and ten missionaries. Then the policy of Chris-
tianizing was adopted, and there were ten thousand converts by the out-
break of the War. Since the War, the work has been conducted chiefly by

246 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

native pastors. The Wesleyans entered this same region in 1843, but have
not been able extensively to cope with the serious obstacles.

' NIGERIA AND TH CAM^ROONS

The century-long story of British acquisition, occupation and develop-
ment of the Niger region is now in the midst of a chapter of such pros-
perity as makes the three hundred and forty thousand square miles and
twenty millions population one of the major areas of this continent of op-
portunity. In the same way the story of Christian missions, with its trage-
dies, vicissitudes and heroism has come into a chapter filled with assurance
and hope in the promise of a rapidly growing Christianity. While adver-
saries are still many, the door is set open.

It is fitting that the Church of England, through the Church Mission-
ary Society, has from the first been the chief factor. When, in 1830, the
Lander brothers solved "the mystery of .the Niger," Scotch and English
at once began efforts to open up the region for trade. The pioneer was
Laird, two of whose motives were to destroy the slave trade and to open
a way for the Gospel. Providence was anticipating this move. In 1822
two British cruisers overhauled a Portuguese slaver starting out with
two hundred Yoruba captives who were landed in Sierra Leone free.
Among them was a lad of royal blood. Baptized in 1825 as Samuel
Crowther, he was educated in England and in the Fourah Bay College,
and in 1844 was a member of the first mission, led by Townsend into
Nigeria from the Sierra Leone mission base. Through the various experi-
ences of building up trade and colonies; inter-tribal wars and native efforts
to expel the invaders; then through the slow process of constructing a
new civilization, the missionary work of the Church Society proceeded.
DuPlessis divides the history into "fourteen years of successful begin-
nings (1846-1860), twenty years of troubled progress, amid many dis-
turbances and interruptions (1860-1880), and forty years of uninterrupted
and steady expansion," which has now continued through another decade
with accelerating growth. To the Yoruba mission was added the Niger
mission, in 1857, but not to be securely established until 1862. The plan
was to have an all-African mission with numerous stations covering the
basins of the lower Niger and the Benue, with Crowther as bishop. The
high hopes were not realized, but permanent work was established, and
in 1890 the North Nigerian Mission was separately organized. This ex-
tended into the Hausa States after 1900, where, among other forces, the
Cambridge University Mission has worked among the cannibal tribes.

Southern Baptists, upon their separate organization in 1845, turned to
Africa as their first field after China and made a tentative effort in
Liberia, in 1846. It was in 1850 that they opened at Abeokuta their per-
manent Yoruba mission, under the pioneer leadership of R. J. Bowen.
The Yoruba wars interrupted the work when it had barely begun. Then
the Civil War interrupted the work from the home base and left the
denomination in poverty. It was 1875 when they definitely gave over
efforts in Liberia, through Negro missionaries, and concentrated on
Nigeria, their one African field since then. The support was limited and

NEGRO AFRICA 247

the work made slow progress until within the twentieth century. There
are now four vigorous central stations, inadequately manned and equipped,
but greatly prospering. There are approximately twenty thousand mem-
bers, rapid increase and unlimited openings for advance.

For a long while the Government depended upon mission schools alone
for education, adopted a policy of grants-in-aid, then established their own
system, organized and supported with determination, and began supervising
mission schools to require efficiency.

The Sudan United Mission originated in 1904 under the lead of Dr.
Alexander Whyte to try to found a chain of stations- across the whole
Sudan from the Niger to the Nile. Branches in several countries par-
ticipate. The difficulties are great and, although some progress has been
made and there were seventy missionaries in 1928, large success is not yet
in sight.

Only to mention the interdenominational Sudan Interior Mission from
Canada, the Mennonite and Plymouth Missions in Upper Nigeria, we
turn to the Calabar Mission of the United Presbyterian (United Free)
Church of Scotland, begun in 1846. In spite of difficulties, dissensions
and slow progress, the work never lapsed and has come into prosperous
times. Mary Slessor has made this mission famous. Her forty years of
service were amazing in daring, independence, influence over the natives
and with government officials. Primitive Methodists began their first
mission in 1870 on Fernando Po, and later entered an unoccupied region in
the interior, where patient and able work is now winning a growing harvest.

The Cameroons and Gaboon territories complete the stretch of "West
Africa." Here the pioneers were the English Baptists and Alfred Saker,
who retired to England in 1876, worn out after thirty-two years of toil,
had the testimony of Livingstone that his work was "the most remark-
able on the African Coast." He created a written language, translated
into it the entire Bible through twenty-seven years, changed a cannibal
region to an ordered community and began a Christian history. British
neglect permitted the Germans to take possession, in 1884, with the result
of the Baptist missionaries withdrawing under the impossible conditions.
The Basle Society took up work; in 1891 German Baptists came in to
minister to the distressed, now independent, Baptist churches; and the
Gossner Society was just beginning when the War came to terminate
all German work. The American Board began in Gaboon, hi 1842, the
mission to become Presbyterian with the division of work, hi 1870. The
work extended to the Southern Cameroons. It has had the problems of
territory under three European powers, chiefly France, which has so ham-
pered an 'otherwise successful work that the last of it was transferred to
the Paris Society, in 1913. Baptists in French territory are still harassed
by French regulations, and the Baptist World Alliance is trying to secure
kindlier conditions.

It is in this "French Congo" region that Dr. Albert Schweitzer has
devoted himself with such picturesque unselfishness and heroism to medical
missions at Lambarene. His course has tremendously influenced senti-
ment in favour of missions in a period so largely characterized by neglect

248 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

and indifference. There has been developed a Christian following of some
hundreds of thousands.

Catholics, since their entrance, in 1890, specially favoured by the French,
have won a following of perhaps twenty-five thousand.

CONGO AND ANGOLA

When Stanley canoed down the Congo one thousand six hundred miles,
in 1877, and for the first time showed that this stream was neither the
Nile, as Livingstone had surmised, nor the Niger, as some had guessed,
he sent a call for England to come in and possess "the grand highway
of commerce to West Central Africa." Failing to persuade the British,
he turned to Belgium, and the destiny of the Congo was determined. This
was in 1877-1879. Belgian armies destroyed the Arab state of Tippu-Tib
and, with the expulsion of the Arabs from the regions of Lakes Nyassa
and Tanganyika, cleared the way across Africa to Uganda.

Already, in 1887, a Baptist layman of Leeds was leading the Baptist
Society to undertake a mission on the Lower Congo, for which he made
an advance gift of one thousand pounds. The society sent from the
Cameroons two famous explorers, Grenfell and Comber. In 1878 the
mission was opened, manned by remarkably gifted men. Grenfell was
second only to Livingstone as an explorer, and traced out the way for
a proposed chain of stations designed to join with those of the Church
Missionary Society reaching down from Uganda. Bentley was one of the
most remarkable linguists and men of letters. With them were others
only less able. Heavy losses from death and invalidism were supplied
by volunteers. Bentley was broken, but bravely working on his literary
labours when this writer was a guest with him in a London home, in
June, 1905, but he ended his labours at Bristol a few months later, and
Grenfell died the next year.

H. Grattan Guinness, founder of the East London Institute for Home
and Foreign Missions, 1872, and of so many enterprises for the furthering
of the Gospel, fathered the Livingstone Inland Mission, after Stanley's
suggestion that the Congo's name be changed to Livingstone. They began
in 1878. In 1884, when the financing of the work was proving too much
for the resources, Guinness transferred "staff, steamers and other prop-
erty to the American Baptist Missionary Union, which thus entered
initially into a heritage of an important and growing work which they
have developed and extended till, with the blessing, of God, it is one of
the notable successes in Africa. Dr. and Mrs. Guinness next launched
"the Congo Balolo" Mission to reach into new territory. In 1909, the
Swedish Missionary Union took a share of the limitless field.

In 1890, Samuel Lapsley, of Alabama, and W. H. Shepherd, an Alabama
Negro, went into the Congo as representatives of the Southern Presby-
terians. In spite of serious hindrances from the state, because of the
opposition to slavery and other outrages on the natives, this mission has
been pronounced " one of the most successful ... in Africa," with results
in forty years "little less than marvellous," almost twenty thousand church
members. .

NEGRO AFRICA 249

The 'Disciples of Christ (Foreign Christian Missionary Society) sent
out two young men, in 1897, to begin a work centreing in Bolenge. They
have gathered some twenty thousand converts and have planted a Chris-
tian civilization in the wild forests, and inspired the native churches to
aggressive missionary effort among other tribes with whom they for-
merly fought.

Among numerous minor missions in the Congo, the Christian and Mis-
sionary Alliance finally won some success after serious blunders, due to
impracticable ideas and methods. The Heart of Africa Mission, led by
the noted Charles T. Studd, undertook to reach small, neglected tribes by
means of a sort of common patois. The work began in 1913. Mr. Studd
returned to England in the summer of 1931, to die. Southern Methodists
entered in 1914, and several other missions about that time.

Roman Catholics have, in the modern period, again undertaken work in
the Congo, and have some twenty thousand converts.

Angola, Portuguese territory for almost four hundred and fifty years,
has, nevertheless, only a small Catholic membership, not over fifteen
thousand.

American and Canadian Congregationalists have laboured in the west-
ern parts. The character of the administration by the Portuguese left
the natives undeveloped and often more degraded than "raw heathen."
Since a deputation visit in 1911, larger success has come. Great changes
in the social, economic and moral conditions have been effected, numerous
schools are ministering education and the church membership grows slowly.

William Taylor, already introduced in this story, got himself appointed
" Bishop of All Africa " by the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1884. In
the Congo and Angola countries he planted numerous stations on a self-
supporting plan. He was a persuasive speaker, a tireless traveller and
worker, a man of great emotional spirituality. He led hundreds of volun-
teers, many of them wholly unfit, into Africa for disaster and failure, until
the society of his church finally rescued what remnants were left, and
Bishop Hartzell put the work on a sound basis. .

The Plymouth Brethren were led by the strange and devoted F. S.
Arnot, a Scotsman, to found a number of widely scattered missions in
Angola, and on to Lake Mwera, where Dan Crawford made Luanza famous.
The mission had, at Arnot's death, 1914, sixteen stations in five fields
through a range of twelve hundred miles from Benguela, on the coast, to
Luanza.

The scandalous maltreatment of the Congo natives by the exploiters
under Leopold's administration have been in large measure corrected in
recent years. Portuguese have never surrendered slavery upon conviction,
and under the guise of indentured labour continue in Angola, to maltreat the
natives. The criticism of their course and exposure of their cruelties cause
an unfriendly official attitude toward Protestant missions.

SOUTH AFRICA

Americans must not forget their own history of injustice, robbery and
forcible transportation of Indians, when they come to study the course

250 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

of the colonists in South Africa in relation to the Negroes, nor may they
excuse themselves wholly by calling attention to the fact that two hun-
dred years of Christian progress ought to have made a difference in the
attitude of a stronger invading people toward a weaker indigenous race.
In both cases our human nature is shown to be very far from trustworthy,
even under profession of following the Christ, and even in a missionary
era. It must be remembered that in South Africa the whites are out-
numbered even yet by almost four to one.

The Dutch Reformed Church, on which in the first instance and for
a hundred and fifty years rested the responsibility, has a dark record
relieved by only a few grey spots. Neglect would have been blame-
worthy ; active opposition was unpardonable. Even in the nineteenth
century it was not until 1857 that the synod, under pressure of its younger
men, seriously undertook "to discover some way by which mission work
could be placed upon a sounder footing." Then at first the only two men
that could be found to go to the heathen were a Swiss and a Scot. Yet
this was a beginning, and it was followed up until, at length, this church
has several moderately successful missions to the Negroes beyond their
own parish, and has more prosperous missions in Central Africa. They
have given somewhat more attention to natives within Boer territory, and
have long had a vigorous home mission organization. Like American
Christians, however, the first undertaking of this church has been to
provide for the white pioneers. In the first half of the nineteenth century,
there were several cases of missionaries sent from America being induced
to turn aside from the heathen and become pastors of weak Dutch churches.
The improvement in recent years is marked.

Next we may turn to a number of German societies which have la-
boured until 1914 in close relation with the Dutch, and in what was
German Southwest Africa. First among these in time and work is the
Rhenish, which sent its first workers in 1829, and built up strong mis-
sions in Cape Colony, Orange Free State (as it became), in Namaqua-
land, and in the important centres of German territory, both Great
Namaqualand and Damaraland. The Berlin Society, from 1834, laboured
widely, chiefly among Hottentots and Kafirs. The Hermansburg Mission
was not a success as a colony mission, but was abundantly successful as
an evangelizing force. They began in 1854. The Hanoverian Free Church
Mission, from 1878, was never large, but, like the other German Mission,
was making good progress until the War.

British colonists were little more ready to evangelize Africans .than
were the Dutch. If they were less positively cruel, they equally made
the interests, the rights, and even the lives of the Negroes subordinate
to their own aims and concerns. The Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel was the agency through which the Church of England followed
British subjects in South Africa. This they did so feebly that, hi 1847,
they had but fourteen clergy and eleven churches, and next to no mis-
sionary work had been undertaken. Then a bishop, Gray, was appointed
who was truly missionary, and by his death, in 1872, "had done much
to establish Anglican missions in many different parts." The Scotch

NEGRO AFRICA 251

Episcopal Church sent a bishop for Kaffraria, in 1873. The interest con-
tinued, the work expanded. The English Church has dioceses covering
more or less the entire Commonwealth. Hampered by too close a con-
nection with the ruling power, its missions have, nevertheless, won many
converts, and its schools have trained a growing native ministry.

First in missionary importance for South Africa is the London Mis-
sionary Society. Its first missionaries were sent in 1799. Its roster holds
the names of Van der Kemp, Philip, Moffatt, Livingstone, Mackenzie in
its long and honourable list. By 1859 the society was able to form its
churches into the Congregational Union of South Africa, in co-operation
with which the society continued its labours. American Congregationalists,
from 1834, worked in Natal, making the Zulus their special charge. Thus
three Congregational bodies occupy large place in South African Chris-
tianity and press their work into Central Africa. The winning of Africaner
by Moffatt, and later the remarkable Christian King Khama, have made
the Bechnana missions outstanding proofs of the power of the grace of
God in Christ Jesus.

The Scotch Presbyterians, through the Glasgow Society, began in
Kaffraria, in 1820, and have made a great contribution by their educa-
tional work. " Stewart of Lovedale " made that centre famous. For thirty-
eight years he guided a remarkable industrial school and built up compre-
hensive cultural courses. His death, in 1905, did not check its growth
and influence.

The special field of the Paris Society, whose first missionaries came
in 1829, has been among the Basutos and Barotsi. Their most dis-
tinguished missionary was Francois Coillard, 1858-1904. The work among
the Barotsi was extremely difficult and required great courage and pa-
tience; but in his will bequeathing it to the churches of his native land,
Coillard adjured them never to give it up, and predicted the rich harvest
which has followed the " sowing ... in suffering and tears."

English Wesleyans sent Shaw, in 1816. As early as 1832, immigrants,
chiefly, were constituted into the Wesleyan Church of South Africa, and
Methodist work has been carried on without sharp distinction between
mission work and work among Europeans. American Methodists and
some others have shared the work in Rhodesia and Natal. Altogether, this
body now numbers a half million.

Andrew Murray inaugurated a school for training missionaries for the
Reformed Church, in 1877. Under his influence the South Africa General
Mission began in 1889, and in 1908 another Mission Memorial of him was
inaugurated. These have laboured in Angola and Nyasaland. Since 1820
the Murray family have figured nobly in Africa.

Scandinavian, Swedish and Finnish societies, besides several undenomi-
national missions, have contributed to the work.

Baptists formed their own South African Missionary Society, in 1892,
and have, at least since 1905, a Baptist Union of South Africa. The Pres-
byterian Church of South Africa has also its missions.

Roman Catholics have six vicarates and three apostolic prefectures, and
have stations in almost all the various political divisions. Statistics of

252 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

their converts are not available, as they do not distinguish European and
African members in reports. They have not been very successful.

^ EAST AFRICA

From the Zambesi to Abyssinia lie Portuguese East Afriea, Nyasa,
Tanganyika, the Kenya Colony and Uganda. These geographical divi-
sions are in part so recent as not to furnish a very satisfactory plan for
studying the inauguration and growth of the missionary work. The Ger-
mans came in to claim and win, after some conflict, German East Africa,
only to be eliminated by the World War, so that British Tanganyika, and
in part Kenya, take its place. All these changes came when the mis-
sionary occupation was in its earlier and more trying stages, further to
complicate the work. Within this period, also, Arab occupation of parts
of the territory and Arab slave trading have been eliminated, and this
process complicated the work of missions. Native tribal wars, multi-
plicity of small unsettled tribes and numerous languages were additional
obstacles. Lastly the climate and the primitive hardships took a terrible
toll from inexperienced and sometimes incompetent and often poorly
equipped pioneer workers.

The Portuguese Government was unfriendly to evangelical missions,
and did not encourage Catholic missions until the Republic, when oppo-
sition became less active. Catholics have won but a small following in
Portuguese territory. Protestant work in Portuguese territory has been
chiefly outreaches of the Nyasaland missions. American Methodists, Free
Methodists, English Wesleyans, and the Swiss Romande have some work.
The Universities' Mission extended its work eastward from Blantyre, and
some of the German missions reached into Portuguese territory. It is as
yet, however, a largely unoccupied field, with probably fewer than twenty-
five thousand Christians, Protestant and Catholic, European and native.

Nyasa, a small British territory west and south of Lake Nyasa, became
the centre of a great enthusiasm by reason of its being the region of
Livingstone's last labours and of his romantic death challenge. Already,
in 1857, at Cambridge, he had directed attention of university students to
Africa: "I know that in a few years I shall be cut off in that country,
which is now open. Do not let it be shut again! . . . Do you carry on
the work which I have begun. I leave it with you." Before his death,
" The Universities Mission to Central Africa," with his personal gui-
dance in part, had begun their work, had lost a number of men, including
their first two bishops. It has continued through great discouragements,
and has its missions in Zanzibar and Pemba, in several stations across
Portuguese East Africa, and in a number of stations centering m the
cathedral Island of Limoka, in Lake Nyasa. Its Zanzibar cathedral is
on the site of the old slave market, abolished by British compulsion,
in 1873. This mission also developed a diocese in Northern Rhodesia,
in 1910.

The Livingstonia Mission of the Scottish Free Church, 1875, a ft er a
most unpromising beginning, founded a great industrial school centre, in
1895, which came to wield an influence comparable to Lovedale in South

NEGRO AFRICA 253

Africa. This work, led by Dr. Laws, was later distinguished by Donald
Fraser. In close proximity and full fellowship, the Established Church
of Scotland, naming their chief station Blantyre, after Livingstone's birth-
place, laboured until the churches of the two missions were united in the
Synod of "The Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian," about 1914.
From 1908 to 1921 the mission force was increased from forty-three to
sixty-three, communicants grew from four thousand five hundred to four-
teen thousand nine hundred and fifty-five, schools from five hundred to
seven" hundred and sixty-eight. An independent Zambesi Industrial Mis-
sion and an Australian Baptist Mission, with emphasis on the industrial
feature, were opened, in 1892 and 1893, in the Blantyre region. The
Baptist Mission made fine progress, and a flourishing station in Rhodesia
was transferred, in 1914, to the Baptist Missionary Society of South
Africa. Other smaller missions are found in Northern Rhodesia.

In the region west and south of Nyasa, the Dutch Reformed Church,
in all its three South African Synods Cape, Orange Free State, and
Transvaal has, within this century, pressecf operations in gratifying
degree and with remarkable success, except in Portuguese territory, where
the Government hampered and finally closed the stations of the Transvaal
mission.

In May, 1876, eight young men landed at Zanzibar. They had come
under auspices of the Church Missionary Society. Back of them lay
heroism and history covering thirty years of exploring, praying, enduring
and dying in behalf of Africans benighted in ignorance and exploited by
Arab slave traders and ruined by their own inter-tribal wars and oppres-
sions. Krapf, Erhardt and Rebmann had paid a great price to open a
way for Christ" in this physical, moral and religious wilderness. Burton
and Speke had laid before the gaze of Europe the reality of great lakes
and snow-covered mountains about which Krapf and Rebmann had been
ridiculed by incredulous stay-at-homes. Frere had been leader of an
onslaught on traffic in human beings that culminated in closing the infamous
markets of slaves, in 1873.

In 1875, ^e Daily Telegraph published a letter from Stanley. It had
been entrusted by him to a Belgian lieutenant of Gordon, who, on his way
to Khartoum, was murdered by natives. It was found in one of his
boots when a punitive expedition recovered his body. Stanley told of an
enlightened King Mtesa, with a large territory open for the Gospel. He
was winning Mtesa from Mohammedanism to Christianity. "What a
field and harvest ripe for the sickle of civilization! Where is there in
all the pagan world a more promising field for a mission than Uganda?"
He especially appealed to the Universities Mission, already at Zanzibar,
and to the Free Methodists at Mombasa, as also "to the leading philan-
thropists and the pious people of England." "Here, gentlemen, is your
opportunity; embrace it! ... and I assure you that in one year you will
have more converts to Christianity than all other missionaries united can
number."

The response was immediate, the returns were delayed, and were pur-
chased at a fearful price of suffering and martyrdom. In eighteen months

254 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

only Mackay and Wilson were left of the eight, and two Roman priests
had arrived to carry out the papal principle to "follow up the movements
of the heretics and harass and destroy their efforts." By 1882, the first
bishop, Hannington, had been cruelly murdered and his party destroyed,
even on his way to his parish, and the second bishop, Parker, had been
cut off by fever two weeks after his arrival. Little ^wonder the society
hesitated to make further sacrifice. But Mackay called to them from the
dark depths: "Are you joking? If you tell me in earnest that such a sug-
gestion has been made, I only answer, Never. Tell me, ye faint hearts,
to whom ye mean to give up the mission? Is it to the murderous raiders
like Mwanga, or to slave-traders from Zanzibar, or to German spirit-
sellers? All are in the field, and they make no talk of giving up their
respective missions."

Then came the scramble, with Uganda in the balance as between pos-
session by English, French or Germans. The outcome is well known.
The British gained their East African Protectorate, including Uganda,
Germans had their East Africa, to surrender -it to the British after 1914;
and Kenya became a colony of major importance; while the French
contented themselves at their Sudan border, near the centre of the
continent.

Spiritually, the outcome was the Church of Uganda sanctified by many
martyrs and a trio of names unsurpassed in any mission, Mackay, Han-
nington and Pilkington. By 1902, there were but one hundred and twenty
communicants, but these mounted, in fifteen years, to eighteen thousand and
seventy-eight, and more than doubled in ten years more, and a Christian
church had come to majority and goes on, " a great rock in a weary land,"
a light shining in the darkness. Out from Uganda in all directions the
work spread into no fewer than eight additional missions, east, west
and south.

Inspired by Krapf, the United Methodist Free churches, with Wake-
field and New as earliest great leaders, at great sacrifice laboured through
decades to evangelize the Gallas, and also in other important missions,
beginning in 1861 and never giving up.

After distressing failure in several stations, from Zanzibar to the Lake,
and with almost tragic persistence, the London Missionary Society found a
fruitful field among the Wemba tribe, southeast of Tanganyika.

With Germany's acquisition of four hundred thousand square miles, not
only did the older societies, Berlin and Leipzig, enter the field, but new
societies were formed for meeting the need. The East Africa Society, and
the Neukirken, both began work in 1887, and the Moravians; in 1890,
joined harmoniously in, all working with enthusiasm and with success that
grew after they were once well started.

In the Kenya Colony, as it is now called, besides the Church of England,
Methodists and others, the East Africa Scottish Mission began work, in
1891, and made its centre in Kikuyu, after 1898. A great industrial mis-
sion was built up, seeking to reproduce here the successes of Lovedale
and Blantyre, and also to develop a powerful medical mission. In 1907
it passed to the patronage of the Mission Committee of the Church of

NEGRO AFRICA 255

Scotland, but continued, as before, to "foster the spirit of comity and
co-operation," which finally led to a celebrated missionary crisis and
controversy which is even yet making trouble, especially for the Church
of England.

The Africa Inland Mission, after the plan of the China Inland Mis-
sion, formed in the United States, 1895, set before itself the task of a
chain of stations across from Mombasa to the far interior. It has experi-
enced all sorts of disasters, but struggles forward. By 1921, it had over
one hundred missionaries, all the way from their chief station in Kenya,
Kijabe, to the Belgian Congo. They are undertaking to reach two hundred
tribes with twenty-three languages, in fourteen of which nothing had as
yet been done.

Lastly we mention the Friends Industrial Mission, with stations near
Kikuyu, in which they are seeking to check the pressing tide of Moham-
medanism which is faced by all the East African missions.

The Catholic Church entered East Africa, in 1869, and has distributed
its work over the various areas, with missionaries from various orders of
monks and nuns. In 1920, there were six hundred and fifteen and five
hundred and eighteen respectively, besides twenty-eight native priests.
There were nine hundred and eighty thousand two hundred and seventy
adherents, as compared with one million one hundred and forty-four thou-
sand three hundred and seventy-seven Protestants in 1925.

Africa's destiny is in the hands of Christendom; its territory under
control of European countries, with Arab, Egyptian and Berber protest
and interference, but without power to check its absorption. The destiny
of the Africans is in the hands of the Christian churches, with Islam
powerfully contesting and making difficult the progress of ministering re-
demption. Christian missions have made their impress upon every section
of the vast continent, not forgetting that there are yet many tribes to be
reached. In South Africa fully one-fourth of the Negroes are Chris-
tians; in the rest of Negro Africa only about one in forty. But the posi-
tions of Christianity have been established, its gains are accelerating, it is
the progressive energy in salvation and civilization. It copes with the
triple forces of opposition: pagan darkness, Mohammedan competition, and
the pride and greed of European " Christians."

MADAGASCAR AND MAURITIUS

Madagascar's three and a half millions are predominantly Malay and
Malanesian peoples who were without written language until this was pro-
vided by missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who began work
in 1818. Radama was king at the time, and encouraged the work. In ten
years there were thirty-two schools with four thousand students. In 1831,
the first twenty-eight converts formed the first church,- > Already a new
sovereign, Ranavalona I., was forbidding the schools, and in 1835 insti-
tuted persecutions which were prosecuted with such severity and determi-
nation the missionaries withdrew to Mauritius. Through twenty-six years
the stations were closed, but the native Christians were not suppressed.
They had the New Testament already in their hands, and the living Christ

256 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

in their hearts. Hundreds were slain, and thousands suffered afflictions
calculated to destroy their faith. Yet, when the persecuting Queen died, in
1861, their number was four times as great as in 1835. Ranavalona II. was
too friendly to the new religion. She and her chief minister accepted
baptism and gave every encouragement to Christianity. In less than ten
years a quarter of a million had flocked into the churches. Then French
ambition sought the island, and French policy repressed the missionaries
and Christianity. In 1896, France formally annexed Madagascar. There
was a great falling away and a sifting of the wheat. By 1904, the Con-
gregationalists had but forty-eight thousand. Their 'schools were so ham-
pered that nearly all of them were closed. The English missionaries
largely gave place to French Protestants (Paris Society). From 1 86 i, the
French encouraged and subsidized a Roman Catholic mission until they
had possessed themselves of the island, and still encouraged Catholic in-
terference with Protestants, although giving the Catholics less favour than
formerly.

In 1864, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Church
Missionary Society both took up work, the latter to withdraw after ten
years. This Church of England Mission has won a following of some
fifteen thousand. The Norwegian Lutherans began a mission, in 1866,
which was greatly prosperous until decimated by the French. It continued,
however, and came into a fresh period of prosperity after 1910. The
Friends have had a small mission. The Malagasy churches have developed
a fine spirit of evangelism and have organized missions for the unreached
and backward tribes. Altogether, there are about a half million Christian
adherents, more than half Protestant.

Mauritius was an uninhabited island when the Dutch located it, in 1598.
After a little more than a hundred years the French claimed it, and in
another hundred it was British, so to remain. Its immigration population
of four hundred thousand is chiefly East Indian. The two English Church
societies, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and American Adventists,
and the Catholics have ministered in a limited way, but the island has
been largely neglected. There were seven thousand communicants in 1924.

XVIII
ABORIGINES OF THE PACIFIC

NO exactly descriptive term will define the field of the islands of the
Pacific, the aborigines of Australia and New Zealand and the immi-
grants and imported labourers in the two Commonwealths and the
Hawaiian Islands. The large islands off the coast we included with Ma-
laysia, both for convenience and because in race and in political and religious
history they are thus connected. The Philippines we reserve to include
with Latin America.

The numerous groups including hundreds of islands are* usually ar-
ranged for study under the three large groupings, Polynesia, beginning
with Hawaii, south and west to one hundred and eighty degrees ; Melanesia,
on to the west in the South Pacific; Micronesia, north of the Equator and
west of Polynesia. The population of all these, plus the native and coolie
immigrant population of Australia and New Zealand, is under two mil-
lions. The native population was primitive and crude in all phases of
their life, and many of them degraded almost beyond belief, when European
contacts were established. Their numbers have decreased in nearly all
groups, partly by reason of their own wars, savageries and depravities,
and largely by reason of the diseases, vices and inhumanities introduced
by the white races who came in to possess the lands and exploit or elimi-
nate the people. It is estimated that there were two hundred thousand in
Australia when the British arrived, while now there are hardly more than
fifty thousand. In Tasmania they were already a mysterious remnant, and
the last one died in 1876. In some other small islands the original inhab-
itants are extinct. In New Zealand the Maori population increases, and
is above fifty thousand, and in American Samoa the growth was forty per
cent in twenty-two years.

Proportionately to the population, these islands have had a remarkable
number of able and famous missionaries. There is great similarity in
the missionary history of many of the islands and groups; and as a rule
the progress has been .phenomenal after a footing was once gained. Often
a single generation has been sufficient for Christianizing. The missionary
spirit of the native Christians is admirable, and the evangelization of many
of the islands has been their work, and they have been employed very
extensively by the missionaries for new advances. One would expect to
find the Christianity of such child-like peoples of a rather primitive type
and requiring much more than a generation to reach maturity. If it comes
into extensive contact with the currents of modern complicated life, its
problems are seriously increased, and it sometimes suffers greatly under
the experience.

257

258 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The London Missionary Society and the American Board; the Church
of England; Scotch and Canadian Presbyterians; English Wesleyans; and
the Hawaiian Evangelical Association have been the chief Protestant agen-
cies, with others sharing in measure. Roman Catholics have been active
chiefly in French possessions, and have to their credit about one-fourth
the Christians of these islands. In most of the larger islands the foreign
missionary stage has been completed, or is about to be succeeded by the
normal activities of Christian churches.

AUSTRALIA ANA NEW ZEALAND

Up to 1851 such limited efforts as were made in Australia by the English
Chaplain Marsden, the London and the Church Missionary Societies,
failed to plant any permanent work among the aborigines, and an offer
of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to assist the Chaplain at
Sydney was not accepted. In 1829, an archdeacon in New South. Wales
reproached the clergy that nearly half a century of. intercourse with Chris-
tians had left the natives " in their original benighted and degraded state."
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel succeeded, in 1851, in
starting a permanent missionary settlement at Poonindie, and by 1913 had
four such stations on the mainland and one each on Moa and Groat
islands. Moravians, Lutherans, Presbyterians and two German societies
had each a station. An inter-denominational " New South Wales Abo-
rigines' Mission" had twenty-seven workers in New South Wales and
in West and Northwest Australia. It was necessary to give the natives
the very rudiments of learning as well as religion, to induce and teach
them habits of settled life, labour, and the arts of agriculture and manu-
facture, as well as religion. It is a difficult work, requiring great patience
and perseverance. _

In 1891, rigid immigration laws restricted the inflowing tides of Chi-
nese, Hindus, Japanese, Malays and Kanakas (islanders). There were
then fifty-five thousand of these, nearly half Chinese. The number was
thereafter greatly reduced. Then came recognition that Australia really
needed more population, and under rigid supervision and regulation immi-
grants are invited. The various churches of Australia include them, along
with the aboriginal " blackf ellows," in their home mission plans. Good
work has been done since the beginning of the century, and Kanaka labour-
ers have returned to their home islands to preach the Christ they had found
in Australia.

In New Zealand the evangelization has been far more extensive and
successful. The natives are of a far higher type than in Australia, where
the Bushmen are at the very bottom of the human scale. Samuel Marsden,
penal colony chaplain at Sydney, is the founder and father of missionary
work among the Maori natives of New Zealand. He induced the Church
Missionary Society to send out some missionaries, went with them to
start the work, himself preaching the first sermon on Christmas Day, 1814,
made in all seven visits of inspection, counsel and supervision before his
death, in 1838.

Wesleyans began in 1822, had many discouragements, including destruc-

ABORIGINES OF THE PACIFIC 259

tion of their first station, gained their first converts only in 1831, after
which the numbers grew rapidly.

Duncan, of Scotland, began a Presbyterian mission in 1844, to give
seventy-four years to the work.

In 1839, an English development company founded Wellington, in the
midst of large tracts of land purchased from native chiefs, and the British
colony (1840) grew rapidly. Selwyn, the first bishop, 1842, was enthusi-
astic over finding what seemed to him " a whole nation of pagans converted
to the faith."

Partly on account of wrongs perpetrated by the white settlers and for
other reasons, the Maori's warred with them, reacted against Christianity,
developed a new fanatical religion called Hau-hau-ism. It was a mixture
of Roman Catholicism, especially Mariolatry, Spiritism, Mesmerism, Mor-
monism and pagan superstition. There was so great a defection from the
Christian churches that only a third of the membership was left. There
was violence and a missionary of the Christian Missionary Society and
a Wesleyan missionary, who had laboured among the people thirty-six
years, were slain. After 1870 the violence subsided, and missionary
work continued, but Hau-hau-ism has not yet entirely passed away. The
Presbyterian Church of New Zealand took over the work of that denomi-
nation in 1871, the Wesleyan Conference" was formed in 1874, and the
Episcopal Church gradually relieved the Church Missionary Society, from
1882 to 1903. Baptist colonists took some share also in the missionary
work, and since about 1900 New Zealand churches have had the responsibil-
ity for their own country and have shared in missionary work elsewhere.

THE I/ONDON SOCIETY IN THE SOUTH SEAS

First in time, the London Missionary Society has also been foremost
in service and achievement in this South Sea field. Attention had been
drawn particularly to " Otaheite " by Cook in the story of his voyages
of scientific discovery, 1869 to 1879, when he was slain on the Hawaiian
Islands. Carey had wished to go to Tahiti, but when he was fortunately
turned to India the London Missionary Society selected this as its first
field, and sent out a colonization party of thirty, besides five children, hi
1897, eighteen of whom were to occupy Tahiti. Most of these were unfit,
some returned, some died, some turned aside to other occupations, and
the effort was a pathetic failure. Yet the society learned by its mis-
takes and persisted, even in the face of bloody opposition from many of
the natives, until the King, Pomare, suppressed opposition in 1815 and,
in 1819, accepted baptism and rapidly led his people to the new faith. By
1835 they had the entire Bible in their own tongue, and Christian ideals
had been formulated as the laws of the island. Then came Catholic in-
trusion, backed by French force.. In 1842, France established a "pro-
tectorate" over all the eastern Society group, and annexed them in 1880,
and the rest of the group in 1888. The French made the presence of
the British missionaries impossible, and after 1863 their work passed to
the Paris Society, and the same was true in the western islands after
1888, where John Williams had laboured in Raiatea as the base of his

260 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

wide operations from 1819-1839. But even with Catholicism the state
religion and the counter-mission of the Catholics, the islands remained
predominantly Protestant.

Williams was the greatest of the London Society's many missionaries.
He was himself uncommonly resourceful, tireless and fearless, and gifted
in enlisting support. He had, in all, five mission ships in his twenty
years; he inspired native Christians with his own missionary passion and
trained them for the work; his "Missionary Enterprises" was sold to forty
thousand copies ; he and his associates and helpers reached numerous
groups within a range of two thousand miles and were marvellously blessed
in the work on Raratonga and Samoa. He aroused great enthusiasm
and support while getting his "Enterprises" and his Raratonga New
Testament published and raising money for a new ship in England, 1834-38.
Upon his return, he and a young associate Harris undertook, with native
helpers, to open work in Erromanga, and were both served up in a can-
nibal feast.

The whole Cook group came into full evangelization after Williams' be-
ginning on Raratonga, and Pao, a native led to Christ by an American
sailor with remarkable tact and ability, became the Christian father of
the Loyalty Group, three thousand miles distant. It was Williams, too,
who, in 1830, left eight Tahitian teachers to labour in Samoa, to be sup-
ported after 1836 by European missionaries. At Malua they built up an
industrial and training school at which hundreds of ministers and mis-
sionaries have been trained and from which 1 beneficent influences have
spread widely. Williams also touched with less success the Austral, Union
and other groups. When news of his martyrdom reached Samoa, twenty-
five at once volunteered to take his place, and the efforts continued with
sacrifice of life until, white and coloured, over fifty- had lost their lives
in Erromanga and had made it "the martyr isle" of the Hew Hebrides.
When these London Missionary Society workers had won one hundred
converts, the group passed (1848) to the Presbyterians for evangelization,
as had been contemplated by Williams.

We are not yet done with the London Missionary Society. Even before
the British took possession of part of New Guinea, 1884, the society had,
1871, selected this most dangerous section for sacrificial attack. The
Christians in Lifu being invited to share in this, "every student in the
missionary college and every teacher in the island volunteered." The
workers came from a number of Polynesian islands. In twenty years
one hundred and twenty of them died of fever, or by murder. In 1874,
the pioneer white missionary settled, and in 1877 James Chalmers came
to prove one of the most remarkable of missionaries. He had already
seen a decade of service in Raratonga. "No white man . . . ever had
a more wide and varied knowledge of ... New Guinea, or visited more
tribes, or made more friends, or endured more hardships, or faced more
perils," up to the tragic day, in 1901, when he and Tompkins and twelve
students were all killed and eaten, one of the last of such missionary
sacrifices. He had not failed. The first converts came in 1881, hundreds
had been baptized before his death, and steady progress continued. Ey

ABORIGINES OF THE PACIFIC 261

natives who came tinder the marvel of his personality, he was affection-
ately known as Tamate, and his biography by Robson is among the greatly
influential lives of great missionaries. Charles Abel, who had been associ-
ated with Chalmers from 1890, carried on the work through its thirteen
stations, and about 1820 there were unusual manifestations of the Spirit
of God.

HAWAII AND THE AMERICAN BOARD

After Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, in 1778, they came grad-
ually into the currents of trade, and then of colonization, and grew in
importance until they were annexed by the United States, 1898. The
Hawaiians were not of the highest grade of even primitive peoples, were
addicted to some of the grosser and more immoral animistic practices and
were in extreme degree in bondage to spirit-worship and tabu. Glover
may overdraw the picture when he adds to " these terrible conditions " the
influence of the "white traders, who violated every law of God and man,
dealt treacherously and brutally with the natives, indulged in shameless
debauchery, and introduced rum and venereal diseases which wrought fear-
ful havoc and decimated the population." Yet the facts essentially sup-
port the charges, and in any case these Islands were too attractive and
strategically important to escape floods of immigration. The native popu-
lation has waned from an estimated one hundred and seventy thousand, in
Cook's day, to some twenty thousand now. The present population of
four hundred thousand includes some seventy thousand Japanese, fifty thou-
sand Filippinos, smaller numbers of Chinese, Portuguese, etc. Two-thirds
were born in the United States or in Hawaii since annexation.

As early as 1794 the King sent to England a futile request for Chris-
tian teachers. It was not until 1820 that any missionaries came. Some
years prior to this a Hawaiian boy, who had been brought to America
as a refugee from one of the tribal wars, was found at Yale College,
weeping because of his desire for an education. Students became inter-
ested in him and arranged for his education. Before Obookiah could
return as a missionary to his own people, he died, and this was the occa-
sion of the American Board sending out Hiram Bingham, a volunteer,
leading a party of seventeen, who opened work in 1820. The King was
already leading in abolishing idolatry and tabu. The chief difficulties came
from' white traders. Members of the royal family were among the early
converts. Proceeding with caution, the missionaries baptized only ten in
the first five years, and only five hundred and seventy-seven in twelve
years. In 1837, under Titus Coan, there came "The Great Awakening"
for six years, during which twenty-seven thousand were received. In 1870
the Aboard t prematurely placed the work in the hands of the Hawaiian
Evangelical Association, retaining a fraternal supervision, and after 1877
again directing. the theological college.

The missionary enthusiasm of the Hawaiian Association was extraor-
dinary, thirty per cent of its ministry being missionaries to the Marquisas,
Paumuto and other islands. The American Board has shared also in the
Mocronesian work, where they had, in 1910, sixty-seven stations, manned

262 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

by twenty-five American and two hundred native workers, and twenty
thousand converts. They had begun in the Gilbert Islands, in 1857. These
and the Ellice had been completely evangelized in fifty years, the London
Missionary Society sharing in the latter, supporting work begun by Elikana,
who had gone the eighteen hundred miles, from the Cook Islands, in a
canoe to give the Gospel to the Ellice.

From a training school in Ocean Island the board mission has evan-
gelized, while Kusiae, in the Carolines, was a centre for evangelizing the
Gilberts and Marshalls, the work beginning there in 1852. When the
Spanish asserted their ownership, in 1885, tne schools and churches were
closed, and in 1890 destroyed, and the missionaries were banished. Ten
years later Germany came into possession, and the mission to the Carolines
was resumed.

The American Board followed the United States Government into Guam,
1910, and has done a fine work.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND MISSIONS

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel entered Hawaii, in 1861,
baptized the Queen in 1862, and broke into the unity of the Congregational
churches. They were succeeded in Episcopal work by the American Epis-
copal Church, in 1902. In the course of immigration, various denominations
arose and evangelization of Oriental immigrants received some attention
from there, in addition to work by the Hawaiian Christians. The Paris
Society shared evangelization in Paumuto.

We have already seen the English Church missionaries leading in work
in Australia and New Zealand. From these bases this church has con-
ducted an extensive Melanesian mission. Bishop Selwyn made a pros-
pecting tour of various islands, in 1848, and the next year opened, in
Auckland, a training school with five students in which, in three years,
he had gathered a student body of forty, representing fifty islands, with
ten languages and including the Chief of Mai Island of the New Hebrides.
His plan was to hold classes in Auckland in the summer, and in one of
the islands in the winter. John Coleridge Patteson, an Oxford Fellow,
joined the mission in 1855, and in 1861 was made Bishop of Melanesia.
Under his very able and devoted leadership, the work prospered, the school
was moved to Norfolk Island. But in 1871 the bishop was slain at Nukapu
Island, as he landed with some native associates, out of revenge for the
carrying off of five Nukapus by a "labour ship." His death greatly
stirred England. It was referred to in "the Queen's speech" to Parlia-
ment, and Max Muller paid a noble tribute to him and his marvellous
work. Six thousand pounds was given promptly for the Norfolk Island
work as a memorial of the consecrated bishop who, among other gifts,
had such a capacity for languages as to be credited with speaking forty
Melanesian dialects. He was succeeded in the bishopric by the son of the
pioneer Bishop Selwyn.

The Solomon Islands became one of the chief spheres of this far-flung
and ably conducted work, and a second training school was opened in
one of them. The Anglicans opened a mission in New Guinea, in 1881,

ABORIGINES QF THE PACIFIC 263

and progressed slowly. It received a bishop in 1897, and continued
steady- development. British New Guinea has been attached to Australia
since 1906.

PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONS

"When he landed, in 1848, there were no Christians here; when he
left, in 1872, there were no heathen." This inscription on a tablet in
the large church in Aneityum of the Hew Hebrides, is in memoriam of
John Geddie, "father of the Presbyterian missions in the South Seas,"
which mission is chiefly responsible for all the southern New Hebrides,
Nova Scotian, Scotch, Australian and New Zealand Presbyterians, all
sharing in the work. As a lad in his Nova Scotia home, Geddie had read
the stories of the heroes of the South Seas, and felt the call. Now he
had given a written language, the Word of God and a trained ministry to
this island, and his converts had sent out fifty evangelists to other islands,
providing their entire support.

Ten years after Geddie went to Aneityum, there went to Tanna John G.
Paton, from Scotland. Two missionary couples who went from Samoa,
in 1842, had found this island impossible. Now the Patons bravely faced
constant danger and extreme hardships for four years before they had to
flee. They located in Aniwa, where ultimately they saw God's grace
" change the whole population from murderers and cannibals into the ' most
openly and reverently Christian community that he had ever visited.'"
Paton was one of the most notable missionaries, and his Autobiography
one of the most popular ever written. What remains to be done in these
islands is carried on by the John G. Paton Memorial Mission, with a
teachers' training institute and hospital work.

The Tongan and Fiji Islands are closely related geographically and
spiritually. The English Wesleyans have almost had a happy monopoly
of their evangelization, arid the work stands out among the most signal
in all the Pacific marvels. The London Society's ship, Duff, dropped ten
of its mechanic missionaries on Tongatabu, in 1797, but after three of
them were killed the rest left, in 1800. Then, in 1822, the Wesleyans
came. After a dozen years of hardship, during which they succeeded in
establishing themselves, the Chief, Taufaahan, who had unified the islands,
identified himself with Christianity, adopted the name George and made a
reputation for himself as an able and righteous ruler. He reigned until
J 893, dying at the age of one hundred. A great revival, in 1834, swept
the islands, and the period of missionary evangelism was practically com-
pleted in a few years. Difficulties arose in the eighties with the Australian
Conference, and the King headed a "Free Church of Tonga." The breach
was later mainly healed.

From Tonga, the story moves to the Fiji group for a thrilling chapter.
So degraded, violent and cannibalistic were the Fijians that their name
came to be a byword for "fool-hardy" missionary undertakings, and the
wiseacre critics of missionaries still crack ignorant jokes about Fijians

264 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

eating missionaries. Some Tongan converts, trading on the island of
kakemba, impressed the heathen with their Christian testimony, and, in
1835, two missionaries, Cross and Cargill, followed up this small opening.
They had a rough time, some of their Tongan helpers were killed. They
found that the great chief could boast of having eaten of eight hundred and
seventy-two human beings. Yet in five months they had baptized thirty-
one, and two hundred and eighty the first year. In that same year a ter-
rible epidemic raged on Ono. When all their gods failed them, having
learned vaguely of Christianity in Tahiti, they abandoned their pagan rites,
adopted Sunday observance and were trying to worship the God of Whom
they had vaguely heard. Tongan teachers, and then Calvert, went to Ono
and, in a few months, two hundred had been baptized. In 1845, a remark-
able manifestation of the Spirit came. A number of chiefs, including one
of the most monstrous, were regenerated. In twenty years the Bible was
translated, and a third of the people were adhering to the Gospel. Of
course, there were difficulties. The Christian King, in 1874, approved the
annexation of the Islands by Great Britain as the way of saving them from
the French. Churches and schools were built throughout the Islands, many
native Christians went as missionaries to New Guinea, New Britain and
the Solomon Islands. Nearly all the people are in the Wesleyan churches.
The native population is waning and Indians have come in in great num-
bers, now probably fifty thousand. In their evangelization the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel shares with the Wesleyans and the Fiji
church.

The Bismark Group was undertaken by the Australian Methodists, in
1875, under the lead of George Brown, while the workers were chiefly
Fijian and Tongan evangelists. Three Fijian missionaries met their fate
in a cannibal feast. With courage and devotion, the work has been carried
on with success in evangelism, industrial schools and the George Brown
College, where preachers and teachers have been trained for an Evan-
gelical Christian group now numbering perhaps a seventh of the entire
population of over two hundred thousand.

SMALLER MISSIONARY AGENCIES

Besides the major Protestant organizations labouring in the Pacific, there
are smaller missions doing their bit here and there. The Lutheran Church
has had missions in German New Guinea, and German organizations worked
in a small way in other German possessions, as did the Dutch in their
regions. The Paris Society has done its best with its resources in French
territory, in the face of Roman Catholic opposition and a generally unsym-
pathetic official attitude. Mormons and Adventists have gone to several
islands and made some converts and proselytes.

CATHOLIC MISSIONS

Catholics began their efforts in Hawaii in 1827, and have developed
rather widespread missions, which were organized by 1842 in vicarates of
Eastern (1833), Western (1836) and Central Oceania, each of which was
subdivided as the work expanded and developed into almost a score of

ABORIGINES OF THE PACIFIC 263

vicafates. Their successes have been most numerous in New Pomerania
(Bismarks), Hawaii, Guam, Marshall and Gilbert Islands, [N[ew Caledonia,
the Fijis. Their missions in New Zealand were practically destroyed in
the Hau-Hau movement, but were re-established and prospered in three
dioceses, especially in that of Auckland. In Australia the Benedictines
were led by Salvado, who pioneered for three years, was then made a
bishop and took forty volunteers in 1852. He laboured fifty-four years
for the aborigines and left his work to be led by Torres, who became
bishop in 1910. With all their devotion, their following ^remains small. In
all the Pacific they number about one hundred and twenty-five thousand
membership, which includes an undetermined number of Europeans in some
of the islands. That they have sometimes gloried in hindering and even
effecting the destruction of Protestant missions cannot be denied, nor that
compulsion has sometimes played a part in their work. Yet the devotion
has been great, and their presence has wrought uplift and progress. There
can be no comity between them and the Evangelical forces. Protestants may
very properly elect to labour where the Catholics have not occupied, rather
than in the same locations.

As in Africa, so in Oceania, we deal with a situation in which Chris-
tendom has appropriated the territory and holds in its hands the destiny
of the peoples; where Christian missions have wrought a large measure of
redemption; where the people are subject to the conflicting interests of
more "advanced" and stronger peoples; where the power of Christianity
to constrain and restrain aggressiveness is always being tested. Native
populations are declining in nearly all the areas, and there is tremendous
demand for Christian principles and devotion to be applied to the utmost
in the interests of Christian brotherhood.

XIX
CATHOLIC AMERICA

FROM the Rio Grande to Cape Horn and in the reaches of the Carib-
bean Sea lie twenty republics, British Honduras, the three Guianas,
the West Indies; and the United States' territories of Porto Rico,
Canal Zone and the Virgin Islands. Besides this, we must for the present
include the Philippine Islands, with their eleven million people, as a part
of the United States' territory. In all these lands, except the British Indies,
the Roman Catholic Church holds within its following the vast majority of
the people, and must accept responsibility for the retarded moral, religious,
cultural and economic conditions in so far as these are dependent on religion
or subject to improvement by religious inspiration and guidance.

It is in Central and South America, and in the Philippines, that the
Roman Catholic interpretation of Christianity has had its freest and most
testing opportunity to manifest its ability to influence the contact of a
" Christian " people with a pagan and relatively undeveloped people. In
Europe and in North America, Catholicism has been itself under the in-
fluence of the Evangelical ideals, and its impact on the course of civiliza-
tion has been modified by the non-Catholic influences. In what we are
calling Catholic America, for more than three centuries the Church had
such a monopoly of Christian influence as to enable it to give a truly
characteristic demonstration of its resources and its product. That the
test leaves room and demand for another form of Christianity to make
its contribution to the further progress of all the peoples involved, cannot
be denied by any who know the facts of the conditions and are willing to
face them without dogmatic prejudice.

Beginning a century earlier than North America, Catholic America .was,
at the beginning of the twentieth century, a century behind Protestant
America in progress; and the European colonists had in the first case to
deal with a native population far in advance of that in North America;
and they found lands with natural resources certainly no less than those
of the immigrant invaders of the North. Conditions in all the Catholic
countries, after three hundred years of occupation, were either degraded
or backward in civil, social, moral and spiritual things. Illiteracy, super-
stition, mass poverty and lack of initiative, social immorality and irregu-
larity constituted a challenge which was almost wholly unheeded by the
Church and by that refined, cultured, comfortable minority which in all
these countries constituted an artistic civilization in itself very admirable but
in its relation to the neglected majority ineffective and unconcerned.

INDEPENDENCE AND REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT

For three hundred years all these "Latin American" countries re-

266

CATHOLIC AMERICA 267

mained subject to European powers, parts of the empires of Portugal and
Spain, with small areas ruled by other powers. Then came a period of
rapid and successful revolt. From 1809 to 1828 every continental country
threw off the yoke of Spain. Portugal's rulers had fled from French
invasion to Brazil, and set up as an "Empire," in 1807. Nearly all
cases these countries now set up as Republics. Brazil did not depose her
Emperor and follow American fashion until 1887. Mexico, one of the first
in revolt, had a checkered career until Juarez executed the Franco-
Austrian monarch, Maximilian, in 1867. In the stormy six decades she
had lost half her territory to the United States, but not many of her people.
Already, in 1802, Napoleon had sold Louisiana to the United States, and
she followed her destiny on to the Pacific before 1850. In 1821, the
United States had brought to an end the claims of British and Spanish to
Florida. Since Wolfe had wrested Quebec from France, in 1759, all
America north of the Gulf and the Rio Grande was now under Anglo-
Saxon, Protestant control and influence. It remained for the Spanish-
American War, 1898, to eliminate Spain from the Caribbean Sea, and to
take under tutelage the Philippine Islands.

These Catholic American states did not at once come into religious in-
dependence and freedom, notwithstanding San Martin's clear-sighted aim
and effort. This step remained to be taken slowly and by degrees, and
is not yet complete. The Roman Church continued in most cases to be
the church of the states, and even when it lost this legal status it retained
powerful, usually dominating, influence. Into the constitutions of most of the
states was written the declaration : " The Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion
is the religion of the state, and the exercise of every other is prohibited."
Only in 1915 was the constitution of Peru amended to permit freedom
in worship. As late as 1929 the effort was made to pass through Con-
gress a bill re-establishing the Catholic Church as the religion of Brazil.

Protestant churches can justify their separate existence only on the
ground that the Catholic Church maintains a radical defection from New
Testament, spiritual Christianity; that the Christ is obscured as Saviour
by the sacramentarian and sacerdotal system; that the Bible is withheld
from the people; that there is no hope for reform of Catholicism from
within; and that a free Christianity is necessary both for salvation and
for progress. All reasons for the origin and continuance of Protestant-
ism argue for the duty of missions to Catholic peoples. In Catholic
countries Evangelical churches are in much the same position as the early
churches found themselves in relation to Judaism and to the Jews.

The American denominations have thus interpreted the situation and
their duty, and most of the larger bodies have sought to evangelize Catholic
America. European churches, dominated by the state church conception,
as well as on other accounts, have not held the American view and have
not undertaken or encouraged such missions. There have been a few
independent organizations and efforts in this direction.

TWENTIETH CENTURY PROGRESS
In the latter half of the nineteenth century new life movements became

268 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

active in one after another of the Latin American states, and gained mo-
mentum until, in the twentieth century, one witnesses most inspiring and
challenging advances in practically all these countries. Governments are
being stabilized and the people are pressing on from an aristocratic repub-
licanism to genuine democracy. There is a growing "Middle Class,"
without which there could be little advance. There are eager efforts to
overcome ignorance and illiteracy, and to democratize education. The
illiteracy is being reduced in all countries, until from eighty to ninety-five
per cent a century ago, it has been reduced now to forty per cent in
Argentina and hardly more than eighty-five in even the most backward
country. There is determined development of natural resources, indus-
trialism and commerce. These states have wholesome aspiration to take
their place in the world's common life and in the councils of the nations
of the world. There is the thrill of new life, and one finds almost every-
where the challenge of pioneer conditions similar to those in North
America in the nineteenth century. The tides of immigration chiefly
European rise ever higher to complicate and to emphasize the Evangelical
opportunity.

The time is opportune for sharing with Catholic Americans the values,
the power and the inspiration of Evangelical religion. The secular renais-
sance and education are producing widespread scepticism, agnosticism,
materialism that cannot be successfully met and countered by the Roman
Church. There are some welcome evidences of spiritual revival and moral
reform within the Catholic communion. All along there have been Evan-
gelicals who would place chief hope in such reformation from within.
The Congress on Christian Work in South America, Montevideo, 1925,
placed emphasis on this hope and took steps to encourage such a move-
ment within the Catholic fold. Individual Catholics participated in the
Congress, but there was, of course, no official Catholic recognition of it.
History and experience warn against relying. on this method for meeting
the religious need.

Freedom for Evangelical work has grown slowly. While not completely
attained in any country, there is no longer serious hindrance in a half
dozen of the more advanced republics, and it is possible in all.

Until the Panama Latin American Conference, 1916, the various denomi-
nations undertaking missions reproduced their own types with close affili-
ation with the North American bodies. Sentiment grows for "native
churches," and for an undenominational Christianity, an idea which re-
ceived strong approval by the Montevideo Congress. It should be said that
the Baptists were not officially present in that Congress, and thus far con-
scientiously separate themselves from the non-denominational movement.

Until recently the missionary work has aimed at the civilized peoples
and the settled communities. Now there is fresh and extensive interest
in the Indians. As all of these were supposed to have been incorporated
within the Catholic Church in the period of conquest and colonization,
the missionary plans have merely included them in the general mass of
the people. It has now come to be known that Indians are far more numer-
ous than was formerly supposed. Instead of being a negligible remnant

CATHOWC AMERICA 269

they constitute about one-fourth of the total population of Central and
South America. Some of them retain their native languages and speak
or understand Spanish or Portuguese very inadequately. The " Chris-
tianity" of very many is found to be only nominal and very superficial,
while some have never had the " Sacraments of the Church." Pagan prac-
tices have been maintained in some tribes, especially along the eastern
slopes of the Andes and in the upper reaches of the Amazon. They"
have corne to be regarded as constituting a special field for evangeliza-
tion, and efforts are making to provide for this. "Evangelical missions
have thrust their rays of light into certain of these darkened communi-
ties -on the highlands of Bolivia, on the Peruvian Andes, in the southern
part of Chile, in Paraguay, and in Brazil," yet the Montevideo Congress*
Commission reported that "on the whole, almost nothing has been done,
at least in an organized, systematic, comprehensive way, and the people
are living feebly, like a stagnant stream, tilling the soil, fishing in
the streams, hunting in the forest, by methods that have not changed for
centuries."

BEGINNINGS OP PROTESTANT WORK

-Protestant work in Catholic America begins in Argentina, in 1820, when
James Thompson preached what is said to have been the first Protestant
sermon in Buenos Aires. He had been sent out by the English and
Foreign School Society in co-operation with the British and foreign.
Bible Society, to inaugurate a system of Lancasterian Schools. This
project had succeeded so well in England that an organization was formed
to promote it both at home and abroad. Since the Bible was the chief
text-book of the Lancaster system, the Bible Society co-operated in pro-
moting it in South America. For six years the work prospered. Hun-
dreds of schools were conducted in Argentina, and the services of
Thompson were demanded in Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Ecuador, and in
Mexico. Bibles were widely sold and auxiliary societies were formed in
a number of cities to promote the sales. Reaction soon set in. A move-
ment that "received a warm welcome because it purported to be educa-
tional . . . met with a violent death by priestly suffocation because it
was evangelical." In 1826, Thompson returned to England, and the schools
suffered a lingering death. Here is one of the lost opportunities of Chris-
tian missions. "A resolute band of Christian workers might have pressed
the advantage gained by Thompson and have laid the foundations of a
successful evangelical enterprise at a time when all circumstances seemed
to favour their cause." Thompson expressed the idea that since the world
began he did not think that there ever was a finer field for the exercise of
benevolence in all its parts.

Another beginning not consecutively followed up was by the Methodist
Episcopal Church, which sent Fountain E. Pitts, in 1835, to see what
the prospects might be in Rio and Buenos Aires. His favourable report
was followed by sending D. P. Kidder, who began in 1836, travelled widely
in Brazil for- five years, finding a great demand for the Bible, circulation
of which was his chief effort. :

270 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Captain Allen Gardiner had already found himself opposed by European
authorities in his efforts to evangelize the natives of both West and South
Africa, when he turned to the Indians of South America in sacrificial
efforts. He found priestly opposition too powerful in his efforts in the
Chaco (Argentina-Paraguay) and Chile. Just then Darwin was citing
the Terra del Fuegans as the "missing link," incapable of moral distinc-
tion. Gardiner accepted the challenge, effected in England the formation
of the South American Missionary Society (1844), and went forth to
heroic, sacrificial effort, to die of slow starvation with his entire party
while they waited in vain for the supply ship that came too late. This
was in 1851, and his sacrifice stirred enthusiastic support of the society.
Darwin was himself convinced, paid high tribute to the success among
these degraded people, and became a contributor to the support of
the work.

Driven out of Madeira, where he had done successful work as a mis-
sionary, Dr. Kalley went to Brazil, 1855, where some of his converts had
preceded him. He was an independent Scotch Presbyterian. A physician
of ability and with many accomplishments, he began a successful work
which he carried on for twenty-one years, and brought about the formation
of the "Help for Brazil" organization, which has continued to conduct
limited work for seventy-five years.

The Bible Societies have led the way for denominational missions all
over Catholic America. The American Bible Society began about the
middle of last century to send its colporteurs, and has been represented by
men of courage, tact and martyr spirit. They went into territory not yet
accessible to missionary residence, and now that the countries are all
legally accessible to the missionary, the society's representatives are
giving attention to the neglected Indian peoples. The late Dr. Jordan,
in a long service with the society, did a great work and in the later years
made himself especially an apostle and advocate in behalf of the Indians.

Among the colporteurs of the society was Jose Mongiardino. ' He crossed
from Argentina into Bolivia in the face of warnings that " a high ecclesi-
astical functionary" had declared that he would never escape alive. He
went as far as Sucre and sold all his stock of Bibles, but the threat was
realized; he was slain, refused burial, and his body interred outside
the cemetery wall alongside a murderer and a suicide. At his grave, in
1883, Dr. Andrew Milne, director of the society, and Penzotti, its La Plata
agent, pledged their lives to Christ in this service, and travelled around
the continent distributing the Word of God. Penzotti laboured forty years
in spite of beatings, insults and imprisonments. Another notable agent
was Tucker, whose book, The Bible in Brazil, was a great inspiration to
denominational missions.

ESTABLISHING DENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS

The Presbyterians, U. S. A., began their Latin American work, in 1856,
by sending Rev. B. H. Pratt to Columbia, in. response to an appeal from
Colonel Fraser, who was a comrade of Bolivar. Pratt gave fifty-seven
years "of unremitting fidelity to his task as missionary, translator of the

CATHOLIC AMERICA 271

Bible, and author of commentaries," and won "a wide reputation in the
Spanish-speaking evangelical world." The Presbyterians followed up this
beginning until theirs are the most extensive missions in Lathi America.
They have been conducted with characteristic- intelligence and support hi
Mexico and Guatemala; Venezuela, Columbia, Chile, Brazil. Southern
Presbyterians entered Brazil, in 1893, to conduct vigorous work, and in
1931 were carrying forward fresh thoroughgoing programmes for so
much of the country as they had accepted as their responsibility. In 1916
these two Presbyterian bodies had a missionary force of about one hundred
and seventy.

In four of the South American Republics, Protestant missions have become
a strong factor and exercise a powerful influence quite beyond their nu-
merical strength.

Brazil is the one Portuguese-speaking country. We have seen the
earlier beginnings. With their important Mackenzie College at Sao
Paulo (no longer a denominational institution) and other schools, the
Presbyterians have made greatest advance in developing an indigenous
church. Here only do we find a national presbytery of some ten thousand
members, in addition to the membership still connected with the missions
of the two churches.

Methodists, North and South, were next after Presbyterians in perma-
nent missions, in Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo, and central Brazil.
They have given special attention to schools for girls, a theological
school at Juiz de Fora, and to publication work for their own and other
missions in Sao Paulo. They are especially active in the state of Minas
Geraes.

Southern Baptists sent their first missionaries, Bagby and Taylor, hi
1881. They have planted stations in all the coast states, have developed
educational missions culminating in Rio College and Seminary, which
was founded by Dr. John W. Shepard and in a quarter of a century
brought to first rank in educational recognition in the country. Besides,
. there is a large school in Recife for all grades through American junior
college standard, for both -sexes, and also a school for training ministers
and women workers; a thorough school for girls in Sao Paulo, and schools
of less extensive plans in .other 'centres. Baptists have experienced phe-
nomenal growth in numbers and self-support. Their membership is the
largest of any, now approximately forty thousand, including several thou-
sand German, Latvian and Swedish members not produced by the mission
but closely connected with it. The Brazilian Baptist Convention has its
own organizations, including a foreign mission board with a small mission
to Portugal.

These three denominations include most of the Evangelicals of Brazil,
who number close to one hundred thousand. There are about a dozen
other organizations at work, including a vigorous Episcopal mission hi
the south, made notable by Bishop Kinsolving; Congregationalists, Ad-
ventists and the South American Evangelical Union.

Montevideo is the centre for missionary work in Uruguay by Methodists,
Baptists, Salvation Army, Adventists and the British and Foreign Bible

270 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Captain Allen Gardiner had already found himself opposed by European
authorities in his efforts to evangelize the natives of both West and South
Africa, when he turned to the Indians of South America in sacrificial
efforts. He found priestly opposition too powerful in his efforts in the
Chaco (Argentina-Paraguay) and Chile. Just then Darwin was citing
the Terra del Fuegans as the "missing link," incapable of moral distinc-
tion. Gardiner accepted the challenge, effected in England the formation
of the South American Missionary Society (1844), and went forth to
heroic, sacrificial effort, to die of slow starvation with his entire party
while they waited in vain for the supply ship that came too late. This
was in 1851, and his sacrifice stirred enthusiastic support of the society.
Darwin was himself convinced, paid high tribute to the success among
these degraded people, and became a contributor to the support of
the work.

Driven out of Madeira, where he had done successful work as a mis-
sionary, Dr. Kalley went to Brazil, 1855, where some of his converts had
preceded him. He was an independent Scotch Presbyterian. A physician
of ability and with many accomplishments, he began a successful work
which he carried on for twenty-one years, and brought about the formation
of the "Help for Brazil" organization, which has continued to conduct
limited work for seventy-five years.

The Bible Societies have led the way for denominational missions all
over Catholic America. The American Bible Society began about the
middle of last century to send its colporteurs, and has been represented by
men of courage, tact and martyr spirit. They went into territory not yet
accessible to missionary residence, and now that the countries are all
legally accessible to the missionary, the society's representatives are
giving attention to the neglected Indian peoples. The late Dr. Jordan,
in a long service with the society, did a great work and in the later years
made himself especially an apostle and advocate in behalf of the Indians.

Among the colporteurs of the society was Jose Mongiardino. ' He crossed
from Argentina into Bolivia ia the face of warnings that " a high ecclesi-
astical functionary" had declared that he would never escape alive. He
went as far as Sucre and sold all his stock of Bibles, but the threat was
realized; he was slain, refused burial, and his body interred outside
the cemetery wall alongside a murderer and a suicide. At his grave, in
1883, Dr. Andrew Milne, director of the society, and Penzotti, its La Plata
agent, pledged their lives to Christ in this service, and travelled around
the continent distributing the Word of God. Penzotti laboured forty years
in spite of beatings, insults and imprisonments. Another notable agent
was Tucker, whose book, The Bible in Brazil, was a great inspiration to
denominational missions.

ESTABLISHING DENOMINATIONAL MISSIONS

The Presbyterians, U. S. A., began their Lathi American work, in 1856,
by sending Rev. B. H. Pratt to Columbia, in. response to an appeal from
Colonel Fraser, who was a comrade of Bolivar. Pratt gave fifty-seven
years "of unremitting fidelity to his task as missionary, translator of the

CATHOLIC AMERICA 271

Bible, and author of commentaries," and won "a wide reputation in the
Spanish-speaking evangelical world." The Presbyterians followed up this
beginning until theirs are the most extensive missions in Latin America.
They have been conducted with characteristic- intelligence and support in
Mexico and Guatemala ; Venezuela, Columbia, Chile, Brazil. Southern
Presbyterians entered Brazil, in 1893, to conduct vigorous work, and in
1931 were carrying forward fresh thoroughgoing programmes for so
much of the country as they had accepted as their responsibility. In 1916
these two Presbyterian bodies had a missionary force of about one hundred
and seventy.

In four of the South American Republics, Protestant missions have become
a strong factor and exercise a powerful influence quite beyond their nu-
merical strength. .

Brazil is the one Portuguese-speaking country. We have seen the
earlier beginnings. With their important Mackenzie College at Sao
Paulo (no longer a denominational institution) and other schools, the
Presbyterians have made greatest advance in developing an indigenous
church. Here only do we find a national presbytery of some ten thousand
members, in addition to the membership still connected with the missions
of the two churches.

Methodists, North and South, were next after Presbyterians in perma-
nent missions, in Rio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo, and central Brazil.
They have given special attention to schools for girls, a theological
school at Juiz de Fora, and to publication work for their own and other
missions in Sao Paulo. They are especially active in the state of Minas
Geraes.

Southern Baptists sent their first missionaries, Bagby and Taylor, in
1881. They have planted stations in all the coast states, have developed
educational missions culminating in Rio College and Seminary, which
was founded by Dr. John W. Shepard and in a quarter of a century
brought to first rank in educational recognition in the country. Besides,
. there is a large school in Recife for all grades through American junior
college standard, for both sexes, and also a school for training ministers
and women workers; a thorough school for girls in Sao Paulo, and schools
of less extensive plans in .other 'centres. Baptists have experienced phe-
nomenal growth in numbers and self-support. Their membership is the
largest of any, now approximately forty thousand, including several thou-
sand German, Latvian and Swedish members not produced by the mission
but closely connected with it. The Brazilian Baptist Convention has its
own organizations, including a foreign mission board with a small mission
to Portugal.

These three denominations include most of the Evangelicals of Brazil,
who number close to one hundred thousand. There are about a dozen
other organizations at work, including a vigorous Episcopal mission in
the south, made notable by Bishop Kinsolving; Congregationalists, Ad-
ventists and the South American Evangelical Union.

Montevideo is the centre for missionary work in Uruguay by Methodists,
Baptists, Salvation Army, Adventists and the British and Foreign Bible

272 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Society. Besides these, the Waldensian Church has a number of congre-
gations of Italian immigrants. The educational work of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, for boys and girls, aims at reaching the youth, of the
aristocracy and includes one of the best -equipped small women's colleges
to be found anywhere. The total Protestant membership remains small.
The meeting of the Congress on Christian Work in South America, 1925,
made a powerful impression on the capital city and was a stimulating
influence for Evangelicalism in the country, and to, some degree in all Latin
American countries. Half the two hundred delegates were nationals of
South American churches, one-fourth missionaries to these countries, and the
national leaders were prominent in counsels and in the public discussions.

Argentina is more of a European country than any other in South
America, and British influence is greater than elsewhere. It has made
more educational and economic progress than any others. Evangelical
religion copes here with a more enlightened scepticism than elsewhere. A
total of twenty-three societies were reported as working there in the 1925
Missionary Atlas. These included a local Young Men's Christian Associ-
ation, an Independent Argentine Society with four workers, and several
other minor organizations. The total of missionaries was three hundred
and twenty-nine, of whom seventy-two were ordained men, fifty-four
American and fourteen British. Both the great Bible societies were repre-
sented, the British having entered in 1806, but having at this time only
one representative and his wife; the American, beginning in 1864, had
also one man and wife in 1925.

Northern Methodists first undertook work in 1836, pushed it more
vigorously than any others when the larger freedom came, in the late
nineteenth century, have the best material equipment with more advanced
educational work, and almost half the communicant membership of about
ten thousand.

British organizations were earlier than most of the American, which
for the most part came after 1900. Southern Baptists began, in 1903, with
a small force which has been slowly increased. Baptist beginnings are
really to be attributed to an independent Swiss, Pablo Besson, a man of
rare scholarship and ability, who, besides founding a Baptist church,
took active and influential part in framing the Constitution of Argentina,
procuring toleration and a measure of religious freedom, and in public
welfare movements. He is just now being widely honoured on com-
pleting fifty years of service in his adopted country. The Baptists have
somewhat more than a fourth of the Evangelical membership, about three
thousand.

The Seventh Day Adventists have thrown a large force seventy-six in
1924 into Argentina, beginning in 1906, and stand next to the Baptists
in results.

The Evangelical movement has thus far been largely limited to the cities.
Fully one-fourth of the entire population live in Buenos Aires and another
fourth in four other cities.

In Chile, besides the British and Foreign Bible Society (1811), the
American and Foreign Christian Union was first. Their work, begun

CATHOLIC AMERICA 273

in 1846, was for English-speaking people, but extended its scope and was
passed over to the Presbyterians (North), in 1873. Northern Methodists
followed, in 1877, with a strongly manned and supported work. The Chris-
tian and Missionary Alliance was twenty years later, and Southern Bap-
tists ten years later still, being called in through a Scotch Baptist,
McDonald, who had been working independently for many years already.
Presbyterians and Methodists have laboured in a fine spirit of comity.
Both have emphasized education. The Presbyterian Boys' School, in
Santiago, under guidance of Dr. W. E. Browning, has long been making a
notable contribution to moral and spiritual leadership, with students from
several countries. This is matched by the Methodist school for girls in
Santiago. Methodists have a splendid orphanage and industrial school at "
Iquique, and a college in Concepcion. Baptists have developed in Temuco
with a good school, and have several other stations. Disciples, Adventists
and others go to make up almost a dozen organizations. The South Ameri-
can Missionary Society (British) works among Indians in Chile, as in other
countries. The total of Evangelical communicants is now near ten thousand.
In the other six republics of South America, Presbyterians, Methodists,
Adventists and the Christian and Missionary Alliance have been most
active, with a splendid small Canadian Baptist mission in Bolivia. Many
small bodies have taken some part. ^The work has been very difficult,
chiefly because of the bitter opposition of the Catholic Church, whose
priests have been able, until recently, largely to control both the ignorant
populace and the political rulers. There is great improvement in recent
times, but the handicap has not yet been overcome. In all six,- the Prot-
estant communicants will not exceed ten thousand. In British Guiana
there is, of course, full freedom. The Church of England claims first
place with fourteen -thousand of the twenty-four thousand communicants
reported in 1924, with British Congregationalists and Wesleyans account-
ing for over eight thousand more. A half dozen American organizations
(United States "and Canada) had come in between 1896 and 1924. Dutch
Guiana had only the Dutqh Church mission, with seven thousand three
hundred and one communicants, and the Church of England reporting
ninety-five in 1924.

MEXICO ANB^C^NTRAI, AMERICA

In Mexico there has been a recurrent conflict between the state and
the Catholic Church for more than a hundred years, and the Republic,
since 1867, has had many clashes with ecclesiastical power. The end of
the conflict is hot yet. Protestantism has, of course, had the determined
opposition of the Church and has sympathized with the Governments in
every struggle, although the state has only for brief periods extended full
freedom for Evangelical worship and evangelism. During fifteen years
of confusion, civil wars, politico-religious conflicts, Evangelical churches
and missions have been greatly hindered by the restrictive laws which
the state adopted to protect itself from what it regarded as the encroach-
ments of the Catholic hierarchy and priesthood, for the laws had to apply
to all churches and their ministers. Withal there has been steady, if slow,

272 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Society. Besides these, the Waldensian Church has a number of congre-
gations of Italian immigrants. The educational work of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, for boys and girls, aims at reaching the youth, of the
aristocracy and includes one of the best -equipped small women's colleges
to be found anywhere. The total Protestant membership remains small.
The meeting of the Congress on Christian Work in South America, 1925,
made a powerful impression on the capital city and was a stimulating
influence for Evangelicalism in the country, and to, some degree in all Latin
American countries. Half the two hundred delegates were nationals of
South American churches, one-fourth missionaries to these countries, and the
national leaders were prominent in counsels and in the public discussions.

Argentina is more of a European country than any other in South
America, and British influence is greater than elsewhere. It has made
more educational and economic progress than any others. Evangelical
religion copes here with a more enlightened scepticism than elsewhere. A
total of twenty-three societies were reported as working there in the 1925
Missionary Atlas. These included a local Young Men's Christian Associ-
ation, an Independent Argentine Society with four workers, and several
other minor organizations. The total of missionaries was three hundred
and twenty-nine, of whom seventy-two were ordained men, fifty-four
American and fourteen British. Both the great Bible societies were repre-
sented, the British having entered in 1806, but having at this time only
one representative and his wife; the American, beginning in 1864, had
also one man and wife in 1925.

Northern Methodists first undertook work in 1836, pushed it more
vigorously than any others when the larger freedom came, in the late
nineteenth century, have the best material equipment with more advanced
educational work, and almost half the communicant membership of about
ten thousand.

British organizations were earlier than most of the American, which
for the most part came after 1900. Southern Baptists began, in 1903, with
a small force which has been slowly increased. Baptist beginnings are
really to be attributed to an independent Swiss, Pablo Besson, a man of
rare scholarship and ability, who, besides founding a Baptist church,
took active and influential part in framing the Constitution of Argentina,
procuring toleration and a measure of religious freedom, and in public
welfare movements. He is just now being widely honoured on com-
pleting fifty years of service in his adopted country. The Baptists have
somewhat more than a fourth of the Evangelical membership, about three
thousand.

The Seventh Day Adventists have thrown a large force seventy-six in
1924 into Argentina, beginning in 1906, and stand next to the Baptists
in results.

The Evangelical movement has thus far been largely limited to the cities.
Fully one-fourth of the entire population live in Buenos Aires and another
fourth in four other cities.

In Chile, besides the British and Foreign Bible Society (1811), the
American and Foreign Christian Union was first. Their work, begun

CATHOLIC AMERICA 273

in 1846, was for English-speaking people, but extended its scope and was
passed over to the Presbyterians (North), in 1873. Northern Methodists
followed, in 1877, with a strongly manned and supported work. The Chris-
tian and Missionary Alliance was twenty years later, and Southern Bap-
tists ten years later still, being called in through a Scotch Baptist,
McDonald, who had been working independently for many years already.
Presbyterians and Methodists have laboured in a fine spirit of comity.
Both have emphasized education. The Presbyterian Boys' School, in
Santiago, under guidance of Dr. W. E. Browning, has long been making a
notable contribution to moral and spiritual leadership, with students from
several countries. This is matched by the Methodist school for girls in
Santiago. Methodists have a splendid orphanage and industrial school at
Iquique, and a college in Concepcion. Baptists have developed in Temuco
with a good school, and have several other stations. Disciples, Adventists
and others go to make up almost a dozen organizations. The South Ameri-
can Missionary Society (British) works among Indians in Chile, as in other
countries. The total of Evangelical communicants is now near ten thousand.
In the other six republics of South America, Presbyterians, Methodists,
Adventists and the Christian and Missionary Alliance have been most
active, with a splendid small Canadian Baptist mission in Bolivia. Many
small bodies have taken some part. "The work has been very difficult,
chiefly because of the bitter opposition of the Catholic Church, whose
priests have been able, until recently, largely to control both the ignorant
populace and the political rulers. There is great improvement in recent
times, but the handicap has not yet been overcome. In all six,- the Prot-
estant communicants will not exceed ten thousand. In British Guiana
there is, of course, full freedom. The Church of England claims first
place with fourteen -thousand of the twenty-four thousand communicants
reported in 1924, with British Congregationalists and Wesleyans account-
ing for over eight thousand more. A half dozen American organizations
(United States and Canada) had come in between 1896 and 1924. Dutch
Guiana had only the Dutch Church mission, with seven thousand three
hundred and one communicants, and the Church of England reporting
ninety-five in 1924.

MEXICO AND ^CENTRAL AMERICA

In Mexico there has been a recurrent conflict between the state and
the Catholic Church for more than a hundred years, and the Republic,
since 1867, has had many clashes with ecclesiastical power. The end of
the conflict is not yet. Protestantism has, of course, had the determined
opposition of the Church and has sympathized with the Governments in
every struggle, although the state has only for brief periods extended full
freedom for Evangelical worship and evangelism. During fifteen years
of confusion, civil wars, politico-religious conflicts, Evangelical churches
and missions have been greatly hindered by the restrictive laws which
the state adopted to protect itself from what it regarded as the encroach-
ments of the Catholic hierarchy and priesthood, for the laws had to apply
to all churches and their ministers. Withal there has been steady, if slow,

274 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

progress and the general movements are toward conditions more favour-
able. The eagerness of United States business to exploit Mexican re-
sources has produced an almost continuous strain upon diplomatic relations;
and, since the missionaries were almost all from this country, this business
aggressiveness was a difficulty.

We have already seen how the Presbyterian Church undertook work
in Mexico, in 1872. Methodists followed the next year, and Baptists in
1880. Congregationalists were two years later, and the United Christian
Missionary Society came in 1920. The real pioneers seem to have been
the Quakers, who came as early as 1871, but have never had a large mis-
sion. The Protestant Episcopal Church was still two years earlier, but
its aim has not been to convert Catholics, but chiefly to minister to English-
speaking people. Three Presbyterian churches, and both Northern and
Southern Baptists, and Methodists have participated. In 1920, a confer-
ence was held in Cincinnati, to try to arrange for -the more thorough
occupation of the whole country and to obviate duplication and to .promote
co-operation in educational missions. All the major organizations except
Southern Baptists participated. Agreements were reached along major
lines and there was considerable rearrangement of workers. It was real-
ized that the southern half of Mexico had been largely overlooked, and
that the Indians, in the west were sadly neglected. Conditions have not
made possible the full realization of the plans agreed upon. There is a
healthy Evangelical movement in Mexico, and it is exerting a strong,
wholesome influence on the whole life. There can be little doubt also
of improvement in the tone of the Catholic priesthood, as a whole, under
the separation of Church and. State and the need for more self-reliance
and sacrificial service. A rather extensive, intelligent native .Evangelical
leadership has been produced in the sixty years of educational missions.
The total Evangelical membership is only about thirty thousand.

The rest of Central America and the Caribbean islands present an
extensive group" of units too numerous for detailed attention within our
limits. English Wesleyans, the Salvation Army and the Church of England,
Christian Missions in Many Lands and the Moravian Trust Society for
the Furtherance of the Gospel are active in many of the units, besides a
number of less important organizations. In Honduras, Jamaica and Haiti,
British work has been carried on since the early part of the nineteenth
century (1807), and the Moravians had their first missions in the Virgin
and other West Indies, 1732. To the United States falls properly the
largest responsibility. The different bodies of the larger denominations
have shared in the work, and since 1900, when Porto Rico and then the
Canal Zone, and later still the Virgin Islands, became United States terri-
tory, and Cuba a protege, interest and activity have grown. For the stu-
dent there is some confusion because practice varies between conducting
work in these lands by Home and by Foreign Mission Boards. This is
true of Southern Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists. Northern, Bap-
tists created a special department for this work, under their Home Mission
Society, with an expert superintendent. Presbyterians, North and South,
have extensive work. Methodists have not tried to cover so many fields

CATHOLIC AMERICA 275

as Baptists and Presbyterians, but have strongly supported what they have
undertaken. The Friends of California have done extensive work in
Guatemala and Honduras; the Christian Missionary Society in Porto Rico
and Jamaica. The Adventists have been active in many places, unfortu-
nately apt to be more concerned with proselytizing than with evangeliza-
tion. Some Negro organizations have taken a .hand in Negro sections,
notably 'the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention and the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Board; the Jamaica Baptists and Con-
gregationalists have each its own Union which undertakes missionary work.

Southern Baptists and Southern Presbyterians had been drawn into
Cuban work by special providential circumstances before the Independence,
1886 and 1890 respectively. With the new era there was an enthusiastic
movement to both Cuba and Porto Rico. In Cuba eleven organizations
were listed by, 1925, with nearly ten thousand communicants, of whom,
more than twcr thousand were identified with each of the following: North-
ern Baptists, Southern Baptists, Northern Presbyterians and Episcopalians.
In Porto Rico there were fifteen bodies, reporting nine thousand three hun-
dred and eighty-seven communicants, of whom two thousand four hundred
and sixty-seven were identified with Northern Baptists, one thousand five
hundred and ninety-three with the United Brethren, and just under one
thousand each with the American Missionary Association (Congregational),
Northern Methodists, Disciples. The rest were identified with five other
bodies. All the work in Porto Rico falls in the period of United States
occupation. Comity and co-operation have been observed largely in Cuba
and Porto Rico, emphasis has been on evangelization through native work-
ers and on education and the training of a competent leadership.

Evangelical concern for Latin America from 1900 to 1925 is indicated
in the increase of missionaries from about one thousand four hundred to
three thousand two hundred and forty-nine, and the increase of schools
from eight hundred and ninety-two (in 1903) to one thousand four hundred
and eighty-seven; the growth in response to this interest is indicated in
part by the increase of communicants from about one hundred and twenty
thousand to more than three hundred and sixty thousand three hundred
per cent ; while the pupils in elementary schools had more than doubled and
in higher schools had multiplied, fhe moral influence of Evangelical Chris-
tianity is greatly increasing.

When the United States declared war on Spain, in 1898, her principal
fleet was in Chinese waters and could legally get fuel for the long journey
to Cuba only from the enemy. That meant going to Manila for the Spanish
supply. Incidentally, Admiral Dewey took over the entire Philippine
Islands, and introduced both them and the United States to a new career.
At the close of the war, the United States was under obligation to organize
a new government for the Islands and to supervise their affairs until they
were competent to take charge of their own affairs, yet explicit pledge was
made not to claim any permanent rights, but only to exercise friendly gui-
dance until competent independence should be possible. Of course, the

274 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

progress and the general movements are toward conditions more favour-
able. The eagerness of United States business to exploit Mexican re-
sources has produced an almost continuous strain upon diplomatic relations;
and, since the missionaries were almost all from this country, this business
aggressiveness was a difficulty.

We have already seen how the Presbyterian Church undertook work
in Mexico, in 1872. Methodists followed the next year, and Baptists in
1880. Congregationalists were two years later, and the United Christian
Missionary Society came in 1920. The real pioneers seem to have been
the Quakers, who came as early as 1871, but have never had a large mis-
sion. The Protestant Episcopal Church was still two years earlier, but
its aim has not been to convert Catholics, but chiefly to minister to English-
speaking people. Three Presbyterian churches, and both Northern and
Southern Baptists, and Methodists have participated. In 1920, a confer-
ence was held in Cincinnati, to try to arrange for -the more thorough
occupation of the whole country and to obviate duplication and to promote
co-operation in educational missions. All the major organizations except
Southern Baptists participated. Agreements were reached along major
lines and there was considerable rearrangement of workers. It was real-
ized that the southern half of Mexico had been largely overlooked, and
that the Indians, in the west were sadly neglected. Conditions have not
made possible the full realization of the plans agreed upon. There is a
healthy Evangelical movement in Mexico, and it is exerting a strong,
wholesome influence on the whole life. There can be little doubt also
of improvement in the tone of the Catholic priesthood, as a whole, under
the separation of Church and. State and the need for more self-reliance
and sacrificial service. A rather extensive, intelligent native .Evangelical
leadership has been produced in the sixty years of educational missions.
The total Evangelical membership is only about thirty thousand.

The rest of Central America and the Caribbean islands present an
extensive group" of units too numerous for detailed attention within our
limits. English Wesleyans, the Salvation Army and the Church of England,
Christian Missions in Many Lands and the Moravian Trust Society for
the Furtherance of the Gospel are active in many of the units, besides a
number of less important organizations. In Honduras, Jamaica and Haiti,
British work has been carried on since the early part of the nineteenth
century (1807), and the Moravians had their first missions in the Virgin
and other West Indies, 1732. To the United States falls properly the
largest responsibility. The different bodies of the larger denominations
have shared in the work, and since 1900, when Porto Rico and then the
Canal Zone, and later still the Virgin Islands, became United States terri-
tory, and Cuba a protege, interest and activity have grown. For the stu-
dent there is some confusion because practice varies between conducting
work in these lands by Home and by Foreign Mission Boards. This is
true of Southern Baptists, Presbyterians and Methodists. Northern, Bap-
tists created a special department for this work, under their Home Mission
Society, with an expert superintendent. Presbyterians, North and South,
have extensive work. Methodists have not tried to cover so many fields

CATHOLIC AMERICA 275

as Baptists and Presbyterians, but have strongly supported what they have
undertaken. The Friends of California have done extensive work in
Guatemala and Honduras; the Christian Missionary Society in Porto Rico
and Jamaica. The Adventists have been active in many places, unfortu-
nately apt to be more concerned with proselytizing than with evangeliza-
tion. Some Negro organizations have taken a .hand in Negro sections,
notably the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention and the
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Board; the Jamaica Baptists and Con-
gregationalists have each its own Union which undertakes missionary work.

Southern Baptists and Southern Presbyterians had been drawn into
Cuban work by special providential circumstances before the Independence,
1886 and 1890 respectively. With the new era there was an enthusiastic
movement to both Cuba and Porto Rico. In Cuba eleven organizations
were listed by, 1925, with nearly ten thousand communicants, of whom
more than twcrthousand were identified with each of the following: North-
ern Baptists, Southern Baptists, Northern Presbyterians and Episcopalians.
In Porto Rico, there were fifteen bodies, reporting nine thousand three hun-
dred and eighty-seven communicants, of whom two thousand four hundred
and sixty-seven were identified with Northern Baptists, one thousand five
hundred and ninety-three with the United Brethren, and just under one
thousand each with the American Missionary Association (Congregational),
Norther'n Methodists, Disciples. The rest were identified with five other
bodies. All the work in Porto Rico falls in the period of United States
occupation. Comity and co-operation have been observed largely in Cuba
and Porto Rico, emphasis has been on evangelization through native work-
ers and on education and the training of a competent leadership.

Evangelical concern for Latin America from 1900 to 1925 is indicated
in the increase of missionaries from about one thousand four hundred to
three thousand two hundred and forty-nine, and the increase of schools
from eight hundred and ninety-two (in 1903) to one thousand four hundred
and eighty-seven; the growth in response to this interest is indicated in
part by the increase of communicants from about one hundred and twenty
thousand to more than three hundred and sixty thousand three hundred
per cent ; while the pupils in elementary schools had more than doubled and
in higher schools had multiplied. fh& moral influence of Evangelical Chris-
tianity is greatly increasing.

PHILIPPINES

When the United States declared war on Spain, in 1898, her principal
fleet was in Chinese waters and could legally get fuel for the long journey
to Cuba only from the enemy. That meant going to Manila for the Spanish
supply. Incidentally, Admiral Dewey took over the entire Philippine
Islands, and introduced both them and the United States to a new career.
At the close of the war, the United States was under obligation to organize
a new government for the Islands and to supervise their affairs until they
were competent to take charge of their own affairs, yet explicit pledge was
made not to claim any permanent rights, but only to exercise friendly gui-
dance until competent independence should be possible. Of course, the

276 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

United States must determine when Philippine majority is attained. All
efforts to have a date fixed for surrender of control have failed. While
powerful sentiment for independence exists, and agitation is almost con-
tinuous, the advantages of American occupation, and progress under its
benevolent administration, cause hesitation of the Filipinos to press the
issue. Meantime the economic interests of American business and trade
combine with the international political aspects of the Philippines to pre-
vent definite progress toward surrender of the Islands to an uncertain fate.

The Filippinos had suffered the common experience of Spanish colonies.
About nine of the ten millions had been formally inducted into the Catholic
Church, while most of them remained in ignorant and superstitious illiter-
acy. Nearly half a million poorly instructed and partly pagan Moham-
medans were ruled by their own Sultans in Mindanao and Sulu, subject
to the Spanish overlords; and several hundred thousand, in all parts of
the Islands, were still left in primitive animism after more than three
hundred and fifty years of Spanish rule.

While Spanish was the official language, there remained thirty-seven
Malay dialects sufficiently distinct to form unintelligible barriers to com-
munication. Under American control, English supplanted Spanish as the
common speech. A system of free public schools was organized that has
made marvellous progress and brought incalculable blessing. The schools
are "free, secular, co-educational," and aim at "the spread of literacy on
the basis of a common language." The public schools enroll approximately
a million and a half pupils, and the system provides all grades of education
through the University of the Philippines, with its five thousand students.
In the course of thirty years many thousands of Filippinos have studied in
the United States.

With such a challenge thrust before them, the American denominations
acted with unprecedented statesmanship. A council of strategy was held,
and plans were laid for approaching the task in a way to avoid duplications,
and for the various efforts to be supplementary and most effective. Where
the same denomination has Northern and Southern divisions, only the fftforth-
ern is represented. The Seventh Day Adventists came in in 1917, and the
United Free Gospel and Missionary Society in 1922, but for the most part
the work has been left to the bodies originally undertaking it. The British
Christian Missions in Many Lands (1919) was the only non- American
mission up to 1925.

The year 1899 saw the entrance of Methodists, Presbyterians and the
Bible Society. Baptists followed the next year, and two years later the
Congregationalists, with the Episcopalians in 1901. The Christian and
Missionary Alliance came also in 1902, but with only a small force.
Methodists have had far the largest forces employed, and have enrolled
two-fifths of the communicants. But all have prospered and, as a rule,
proportionately to their investment of men and means. The Evangelical
community in the Islands is now far beyond one hundred thousand, and
is a large factor in the gratifying cultural and economic progress. From
the start the policy has looked to developing indigenous free, evangelical
churches with competent leadership.

CATHOLIC AMERICA 277

At first the Government depended largely on the churches to provide
organizers and teachers for the educational system it was inaugurating, and
there was an inspiring crusade of young men and women who went out for
educational work, moved by high Christian and humanitarian motives.

An important religious fact was the formation, in 1902, of The Inde-
pendent Catholic Church. It repudiated the authority of the Pope and
renounced allegiance to him, and encouraged the study of the Bible. In 1925
it had a million and a half adherents.

High standards of missionary preparation are required by the principal
boards working in the Philippines, and some eminent educators have been
among their number. Dr. lyaurbach, in a comprehensive and scholarly
study, has expressed the conviction that the Filipinos are destined to lead
the Orient in Christianity,, and in civilization. While this may be an over-
estimate, certainly they have responded to the opportunities afforded by
the American occupation' and to the ideals of Evangelical Christian civiliza-
tion with a rapidity and solidity to encourage high hopes for their future
and for their significance in the progress of the Orient.

Throughout Catholic America the Young Men's Christian Association
has gone to the principal cities with its saving ministries and character-
making activities in behalf of young men, and in a few places one meets
the Young Women's Christian Association, with its protecting and inspir-
ing aegis over a slowly emancipating young womanhood. International
workers in behalf of temperance and social reform are also met in some
of the important centres.

276 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

United States must determine when Philippine majority is attained. All
efforts to have a date fixed for surrender of control have failed. While
powerful sentiment for independence exists, and agitation is almost con-
tinuous, the advantages of American occupation, and progress under its
benevolent administration, cause hesitation of the Filipinos to press the
issue. Meantime the economic interests of American business and trade
combine with the international political aspects of the Philippines to pre-
vent definite progress toward surrender of the Islands to an uncertain fate.

The Filippinos had suffered the common experience of Spanish colonies.
About nine of the ten millions had been formally inducted into the Catholic
Church, while most of them remained in ignorant and superstitious illiter-
acy. Nearly half a million poorly instructed and partly pagan Moham-
medans were ruled by their own Sultans in Mindanao and Sulu, subject
to the Spanish overlords; and several hundred thousand, in all parts of
the Islands, were still left in primitive animism after more than three
hundred and fifty years of Spanish rule.

While Spanish was the official language, there remained thirty-seven
Malay dialects sufficiently distinct to form unintelligible barriers to com-
munication. Under American control, English supplanted Spanish as the
common speech. A system of free public schools was organized that has
made marvellous progress and brought incalculable blessing. The schools
are "free, secular, co-educational," and aim at "the spread of literacy on
the basis of a common language." The public schools enroll approximately
a million and a half pupils, and the system provides all grades of education
through the University of the Philippines, with its five thousand students.
In the course of thirty years many thousands of Filippinos have studied in
the United States.

With such a challenge thrust before them, the American denominations
acted with unprecedented statesmanship. A council of strategy was held,
and plans were laid for approaching the task in a way to avoid duplications,
and for the various efforts to be supplementary and most effective. Where
the same denomination has Northern and Southern divisions, only the North-
ern is represented. The Seventh Day Adventists came in in 1917, and the
United Free Gospel and Missionary Society in 1922, but for the most part
the work has been left to the bodies originally undertaking it. The British
Christian Missions in Many Lands (1919) was the only non- American
mission up to 1925.

The year 1899 saw the entrance of Methodists, Presbyterians and the
Bible Society. Baptists followed the next year, and two years later the
Congregationalists, with the Episcopalians in 1901. The Christian and
Missionary Alliance came also in 1902, but with only a small force.
Methodists have had far the largest forces employed, and have enrolled
two-fifths of the communicants. But all have prospered and, as a rule,
proportionately to their investment of men and means. The Evangelical
community in the Islands is now far beyond one hundred thousand, and
is a large factor in the gratifying cultural and economic progress. From
the start the policy has looked to developing indigenous free, evangelical
churches with competent leadership.

CATHOLIC AMERICA 277

At first the Government depended largely on the churches to provide
organizers and teachers for the educational system it was inaugurating, and
there was an inspiring crusade of young men and women who went out for
educational work, moved by high Christian and humanitarian motives.

An important religious fact was the formation, in 1902, of The Inde-
pendent Catholic Church. It repudiated the authority of the Pope and
renounced allegiance to him, and encouraged the study of the Bible. In 1925
it had a million and a half adherents.

High standards of missionary preparation are required by the principal
boards working in the Philippines, and some eminent educators have been
among their number. Dr. lyaurbach, in a comprehensive and scholarly
study, has expressed the conviction that the Filipinos are destined to lead
the Orient in Christianity. and in civilization. While this may be an over-
estimate, certainly they have responded to the opportunities afforded by
the American occupation' and to the ideals of Evangelical Christian civiliza-
tion with a rapidity and solidity to encourage high hopes for their future
and for their significance in the progress of the Orient.

Throughout Catholic America the Young Men's Christian Association
has gone to the principal cities with its saving ministries and character-
making activities in behalf of young men, and in a few places one meets
the Young Women's Christian Association, with its protecting and inspir-
ing aegis over a slowly emancipating young womanhood. International
workers in behalf of temperance and social reform are also met in some
of the important centres.

XX

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE

A~IERICAN Christianity, of course, derived from Europe and remains
largely an extension of the life and forms of European Christianity.
Yet every one would at once recognize that there are characteristic
American developments in Christianity.

The Reformation in Europe was, along all lines, an uncompleted move-
ment whose progress was arrested short of its logical goals. The con-
servative forces of accumulated history, traditions, institutions and creeds
were too powerful to permit achievement of a free, voluntary individual
faith and a free, autonomous, self-reliant, self-supporting church with a
membership which was voluntary. In spite of the principles of salvation
by personal faith, and of the struggle for freedom of the individual against
compulsory authority, the Reformation churches all continued the prac-
tice of hereditary church membership, and in every country of Europe
where they won the ascendancy erected a state church. ' Right up to
the World War this condition obtained, except for the curious canton
option in religion in Switzerland and the nominal, legal separation of
Church and State in France. The state religion might be the Greek or
Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, or Episcopal.
All others were prohibited or tolerated with repressive or with discredit-
ing restrictions. In the countries in which the" Greek and Roman churches
were able to resist the Reformation movement, or to* recover political
control, all forms of Evangelical faith were wholly prohibited or severely
restricted until late in the nineteenth century, or in several cases until
the twentieth. In countries where Protestantism won the supremacy over
a large Catholic minority a modus vivendi, was arrived at, as in Ger-
many and England. Similarly large Protestant minorities were formally
recognized in some Catholic countries, as in Hungary and Belgium. In
such casS active evangelism was construed as proselytism and rigidly
prohibited. An Evangelical church cannot formally or actually surrender
its commission to evangelize and abandon its witness to the kfet without
losing its spirit and its power; and this is what happened in several cases.
The Protestant churches in Hungary and Rumania are almost as formal,
ethically ineffective and spiritually deficient as the state churches. Such
churches must be impotent to meet the needs of changing conditions, unless
they can experience revival and reformation.

Conditions in America favoured further progress in the Reformation
principles and the development of free churches, voluntarily entered and
voluntarily supported. Only in the United States and Canada has this
type of Christianity extensively developed, as the characteristic type,
since 300 A. D. The reasons do not lie in the people of these countries,
except in so far as the colonists were pioneers with the spirit of adventure,

278

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE 279

of individualism and of progress. The wide geographical separation from
the history and traditions and, especially, the organized social control of
Europe permitted a freedom of thought and action which was also com-
pelled by the wide expanses, the responsibilities of constructing a new
civilization and the inevitable facing afresh all man's values. The Spirit
of God had His chance with these Americans, and carried them further
than men hdd ever before gone along the road of man's free response to
God. Nor is that to say that in ethics and morals America has even yet
outstripped Protestant Europe. Time and testing must build up the vital
constraints and the necessary restraints. It does mean to say that a new
orientation is given to Christianity, and so an opportunity for a fresh
advance in human redemption, and in the interpretation of religion and
church.

CONDITIONS CAWJNG tfOR FREE CHURCHES IN EUROPE

Changes in the social, economic and political life of Europe in the
nineteenth and earliest twentieth centuries progressively weakened the posi-
tion of state churches throughout Europe. To make only briefest refer-
ence to the pertinent facts, the common man sought to improve his economic
status; to do this he found he must influence the political state; for this
he must educate himself; in all these he needed the support, the encour-
agement, the sympathy of the Church. But the Church failed him. Grad-
ually and increasingly the common man believed that he found himself
held back from his legitimate aims by the triple forces of the official
state, the official Church and the organized wealth. The Social Democracy
of Europe believed itself to be atheistic, because it thought it must fight
the only organized religion it knew and defy the God it believed to be
claimed and exploited by a Church interlocked with capital and state-

, craft. Economic, political and ecclesiastical aristocracy mutually sup-
ported one another, and the common man must fight them all if he would
claim and win his humanity. The loss of faith and the neglect of the
churches were widespread. Few took the pains formally to repudiate their
baptism and to demand their own excommunication, but increasing thou-
sands were defiant of the Church or indifferent to it. The World War
precipitated a crisis. The hold of the churches was further loosened.
Disestablishment comes but slowly/ and cannot quickly cure the evil.
Without in the least saying that the historic state churches are not min-
istering spiritually to their worshippers and are not in many ways meeting
the needs, we must still face the fact that vast and growing numbers refuse
to seek religious nurture and to find religious expression in the provisions
of the state churches. If they are to be won and. retained for Christianity
it must be by means of free churches, living and ministering on the volun-
tary principle, and with a history that commends them as convinced
exponents of this principle. There are such free churches in all the
countries of Europe. In most of the countries they are few, and in all they
are numerically and economically unequal to meeting the need and seizing

, the startling opportunity.

In Great Britain, freedom and democracy advanced far ahead of conti-

XX

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE

A~IERICAN Christianity, of course, derived from Europe and remains
largely an extension of the life and forms of European Christianity.
Yet every one would at once recognize that there are characteristic
American developments in Christianity.

The Reformation in Europe was, along all lines, an uncompleted move-
ment whose progress was arrested short of its logical goals. The con-
servative forces of accumulated history, traditions, institutions and creeds
were too powerful to permit achievement of a free, voluntary individual
faith and a free, autonomous, self-reliant, self-supporting church with a
membership which was voluntary. In spite of the principles of salvation
by personal faith, and of the struggle for freedom of the individual against
compulsory authority, the Reformation churches all continued the prac-
tice of hereditary church membership, and in every country of Europe
where they won the ascendancy erected a state church. ' Right up to
the World War this condition obtained, except for the curious canton
option in religion in Switzerland and the nominal, legal separation of
Church and State in France. The state religion might be the Greek or
Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran, Reformed, Presbyterian, or Episcopal.
All others were prohibited or tolerated with repressive or with discredit-
ing restrictions. In the countries in which the" Greek and Roman churches
were able to resist the Reformation movement, or to* recover political
control, all forms of Evangelical faith were wholly prohibited or severely
restricted until late in the nineteenth century, or in several cases until
the twentieth. In countries where Protestantism won the supremacy over
a large Catholic minority a modus vivendi, was arrived at, as in Ger-
many and England. Similarly large Protestant minorities were formally
recognized in some Catholic countries, as in Hungary and Belgium. In
such casS active evangelism was construed as proselytism and rigidly
prohibited. An Evangelical church cannot formally or actually surrender
its commission to evangelize and abandon its witness to the kfet without
losing its spirit and its power; and this is what happened in several cases.
The Protestant churches in Hungary and Rumania are almost as formal,
ethically ineffective and spiritually deficient as the state churches. Such
churches must be impotent to meet the needs of changing conditions, unless
they can experience revival and reformation.

Conditions in America favoured further progress in the Reformation
principles and the development of free churches, voluntarily entered and
voluntarily supported. Only in the United States and Canada has this
type of Christianity extensively developed, as the characteristic type,
since 300 A. D. The reasons do not lie in the people of these countries,
except in so far as the colonists were pioneers with the spirit of adventure,

278

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE 279

of individualism and of progress. The wide geographical separation from
the history and traditions and, especially, the organized social control of
Europe permitted a freedom of thought and action which was also com-
pelled by the wide expanses, the responsibilities of constructing a new
civilization and the inevitable facing afresh all man's values. The Spirit
of God had His chance with these Americans, and carried them further
than men hdd ever before gone along the road of man's free response to
God. Nor is that to say that in ethics and morals America has even yet
outstripped Protestant Europe. Time and testing must build up the vital
constraints and the necessary restraints. It does mean to say that a new
orientation is given to Christianity, and so an opportunity for a fresh
advance in human redemption, and in the interpretation of religion and
church.

CONDITIONS CAI/UNG FOR FREE CHURCHES IN EUROPE

Changes in the social, economic and political life of Europe in the
nineteenth and earliest twentieth centuries progressively weakened the posi-
tion of state churches throughout Europe. To make only briefest refer-
ence to the pertinent facts, the common man sought to improve his economic
status; to do this he found he must influence the political state; for this
he must educate himself; in all these he needed the support, the encour-
agement, the sympathy of the Church. But the Church failed him. Grad-
ually and increasingly the common man believed that he found himself
held back from his legitimate aims by the triple forces of the official
state, the official Church and the organized wealth. The Social Democracy
of Europe believed itself to be atheistic, because it thought it must fight
the only organized religion it knew and defy the God it believed to be
claimed and exploited by a Church interlocked with capital and state-

, craft. Economic, political and ecclesiastical aristocracy mutually sup-
ported one another, and the common man must fight them all if he would
claim and win his humanity. The loss of faith and the neglect of the
churches were widespread. Few took the pains formally to repudiate their
baptism and to demand their own excommunication, but increasing thou-
sands were defiant of the Church or indifferent to it. The World War
precipitated a crisis. The hold of the churches was further loosened.
Disestablishment comes but slowly, 4 and cannot quickly cure the evil.
Without in the least saying that the historic state churches are not min-
istering spiritually to their worshippers and are not in many ways meeting
the needs, we must still face the fact that vast and growing numbers refuse
to seek religious nurture and to find religious expression in the provisions
of the state churches. If they are to be won and. retained for Christianity
it must be by means of free churches, living and ministering on the volun-
tary principle, and with a history that commends them as convinced
exponents of this principle. There are such free churches in all the
countries of Europe. In most of the countries they are few, and in all they
are numerically and economically unequal to meeting the need and seizing

. the startling opportunity.

In Great Britain, freedom and democracy advanced far ahead of conti-

280 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

nental conditions. From the middle of the seventeenth century, and espe-
cially after the Wesleys began their great movement, free Evangelicalism
grew rapidly. Wesleyans, Independents (Congregationalists), Baptists and
Presbyterians (of course, already dominant in Scotland) grew strong, vigor-
ous denominations, whose influence inevitably extended in some measure
to the Continent, where Pietistic movements had prepared some soil for
such seed.

In the nineteenth century, when the free churches in America had
come to maturity, European immigrants gave occasion for the beginning
of American denominations in Europe, from about 1840 onward. Some
who came to America and found here not only fresh and original experi-
ence of the saving Christ, but the free church of which they had never
known before, returned to inaugurate and foster such churches in their
own homelands. Thus especially Baptist and Methodist churches had be-
ginnings in the continent of Europe. Naturally, fraternal sympathy and
financial help went to "brethren of like precious faith;" and this encour-
agement was stimulated by the persecution suffered by these innovators,
sometimes severe and wanting in no country into which they came.

Hamburg was the point of first approach, where J. G. Oncken was the
pioneer. He had had a remarkable career, and after living in Scotland
had been a colporteur in Germany and had distributed two million copies
of Scriptures. His study of the Bible led him to question the practices of
the Protestant churches. He established connection with American Bap-
tists, learned that Professor Barnas Sears, of Hamilton Theological Semi-
nary, was in Germany. With six others he received baptism secretly in
the Elbe and started the first Baptist church. In spite of his spending
much time in prison and of the same experience by several of his con-
verts, they succeeded in making this a centre for Baptist expansion into
the Scandinavian countries, into Russia, whither many Germans were
emigrating, and into southeastern Europe. The theological seminary in
Hamburg became a source of leadership as Baptists grew on' the Continent
from nothing in 1834 to a quarter of a million in a score of countries by
1920, besides the numbers in Russia to be mentioned later.

After the revolutions culminating in 1868-70, and in the new conditions
thereafter, there was a larger measure of freedom, and efforts at expan-
sion became more aggressive, with support from both Great Britain and
the United States. Missions were formally undertaken in the Catholic
countries of southern Europe, where they had previously been impossible.
Colporteurs, and other representatives of the Bible societies, and conse-
crated workers of the United Brethren, and some others quietly carried
the New Testament, tracts and a few books into regions where open Evan-
gelical churches were as yet impossible. Probably there was some con-
nection between these itinerant missionaries and the rise, especially in
southern Russia, of spontaneous, indigenous Evangelical movements.

In 1905, the Baptist World Alliance was constituted, in a notable " Con-
gress" held in London, to which were brought representatives of the
denomination from most of the European countries. From that time the
strong denominational bodies of the United States, Canada and Great

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER 'DEBT TO EUROPE 281

Britain promoted the growth by correspondence, personal and commission
visitation, and by increased financial help, particularly in the effort to
provide for the training of a ministry.

English Wesleyans had become interested in Italy as early as 1861 and,
a little later, in Spain. The Methodist Episcopal Church began in Italy
in 1873 and, with Rome as a centre, made a growing impression for Prot-
estantism in the country. Its educational work was of a high order, for
girls, boys and students for the ministry. Some twenty years later they
located a representative in Zurich to serve as an interpreter of Evan-
gelical Christianity without direct effort to win converts or found Methodist
churches.

From about 1830 'the British -and Foreign Bible Society had been able
to distribute a few Bibles in Italy. John Charles Beckwith, a lieutenant-
colonel under Wellington, lost a leg at Waterloo and was led to study
the Bible. Providentially led to interest himself in the Waldensians, he
devoted a quarter of a century to reviving their interest in active evangel-
ization. He left Italy in 1853. Later, under the influence and support
of Dr. McDougall, a Scotch Free Church minister in Florence, the Evan-
gelical Church of Italy came into being, later to be associated with the
American Methodists. The American Presbyterians, while ministering to
English-speaking Christians in Rome and elsewhere," became affiliated in
Italian work with the Waldensians and provided funds for their work.

The revolutionary years around 1870 gave temporary freedom in many
quarters and permanently in some countries, so that there was an advance
in Evangelical Christianity. Dr. Cote was already in France as a Young
Men's Christian Association secretary when, in 1870, he was chosen by the
Southern Baptist Board as missionary to Italy, and followed Victor Eman-
uel's armies into Rome. The next year British Baptists also began work.

Beginning in 1868, a number of small missions were undertaken in
Spain, but it very soon appeared that they must be carried on under
greatest difficulties and hardships, for the freedom of the Constitution was
ignored and persecution was almost constant. Baptists, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists, German Lutherans, Methodists, Plymouth Brethren and
others shared in these efforts. Mrs. Gulick founded and developed to
great usefulness a school for girls. /The multiplicity of organizations and
the number of small independent missions, feebly supported, prevented
Protestantism from making the impression to which it was entitled.

No full understanding of the work of American churches in Europe
can be had without taking account of the history of Protestant movements
within each of the countries; of the influence of the kaleidoscopic political
developments; and of the remarkable -" Los von Rom" movement in the
latter half of the nineteenth century. Yet it would go beyond the pos-
sible range of this work even to outline these factors. Suffice it to say
that when the World' War came American Baptists, Methodists and
Presbyterians were already in contact and co-operation with groups of
their fellow-Christians in a number of the European countries. At the
close of the War, conditions seemed to demand great enlargement of these
contacts.

280 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

nental conditions. From the middle of the seventeenth century, and espe-
cially after the Wesleys began their great movement, free Evangelicalism
grew rapidly. Wesleyans, Independents (Congregationalists), Baptists and
Presbyterians (of course, already dominant in Scotland) grew strong, vigor-
ous denominations, whose influence inevitably extended in some measure
to the Continent, where Pietistic movements had prepared some soil for
such seed.

In the nineteenth century, when the free churches in America had
come to maturity, European immigrants gave occasion for the beginning
of American denominations in Europe, from about 1840 onward. Some
who came to America and found here not only fresh and original experi-
ence of the saving Christ, but the free church of which they had never
known before, returned to inaugurate and foster such churches in their
own homelands. Thus especially Baptist and Methodist churches had be-
ginnings in the continent of Europe. Naturally, fraternal sympathy and
financial help went to "brethren of like precious faith;" and this encour-
agement was stimulated by the persecution suffered by these innovators,
sometimes severe and wanting 1 in no country into which they came.

Hamburg was the point of first approach, where J. G. Oncken was the
pioneer. He had had a remarkable career, and after living in Scotland
had been a colporteur in Germany and had distributed two million copies
of Scriptures. His study of the Bible led him to question the practices of
the Protestant churches. He established connection with American Bap-
tists, learned that Professor Barnas Sears, of Hamilton Theological Semi-
nary, was in Germany. With six others he received baptism secretly in
the Elbe and started the first Baptist church. In spite of his spending
much time in prison and of the same experience by several of his con-
verts, they succeeded in making this a centre for Baptist expansion into
the Scandinavian countries, into Russia, whither many Germans were
emigrating, and into southeastern Europe. The theological seminary in
Hamburg became a source of leadership as Baptists grew on' the Continent
from nothing in 1834 to a quarter of a million in a score of countries by
1920, besides the numbers in Russia to be mentioned later.

After the revolutions culminating in 1868-70, and in the new conditions
thereafter, there was a larger measure of freedom, and efforts at expan-
sion became more aggressive, with support from both Great Britain and
the United States. Missions were formally undertaken in the Catholic
countries of southern Europe, where they had previously been impossible.
Colporteurs, and other representatives of the Bible societies, and conse-
crated workers of the United Brethren, and some others quietly carried
the New Testament, tracts and a few books into regions where open Evan-
gelical churches were as yet impossible. Probably there was some con-
nection between these itinerant missionaries and the rise, especially in
southern Russia, of spontaneous, indigenous Evangelical movements.

In 1905, the Baptist World Alliance was constituted, in a notable "Con-
gress" held in London, to which were brought representatives of the
denomination from most of the European countries. From that time the
strong denominational bodies of the United States, Canada and Great

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER 'DEBT TO EUROPE 281

Britain promoted the growth by correspondence, personal and commission
visitation, and by increased financial help, particularly in the effort to
provide for the training of a ministry.

English Wesleyans had become interested hi Italy as early as 1861 and,
a little later, in Spain. The Methodist Episcopal Church began in Italy
in 1873 and, with Rome as a centre, made a growing impression for Prot-
estantism in the country. Its educational work was of a high order, for
girls, boys and students for the ministry. Some twenty years later they
located a representative in Zurich to serve as an interpreter of Evan-
gelical Christianity without direct effort to win converts or found Methodist
churches.

From about 1830 'the British -and Foreign Bible Society had been able
to distribute a few Bibles in Italy. John Charles Beckwith, a lieutenant-
colonel under Wellington, lost a leg at Waterloo and was led to study
the Bible. Providentially led to interest himself in the Waldensians, he
devoted a quarter of a century to reviving their interest in active evangel-
ization. He left Italy in 1853. Later, under the influence and support
of Dr. McDougall, a Scotch Free Church minister in Florence, the Evan-
gelical Church of Italy came into being, later to be associated with the
American Methodists. The American Presbyterians, while ministering to
English-speaking Christians in Rome and elsewhere," became affiliated in
Italian work with the Waldensians and provided funds for their work.

The revolutionary years around 1870 gave temporary freedom in many
quarters and permanently in some countries, so that there was an advance
in Evangelical Christianity. Dr. Cote was already in France as a Young
Men's Christian Association secretary when, in 1870, he was chosen by the
Southern Baptist Board as missionary to Italy, and followed Victor Eman-
uel's armies into Rome. The next year British Baptists also began work.

Beginning in 1868, a number of small missions were undertaken in
Spain, but it very soon appeared that they must be carried on under
greatest difficulties and hardships, for the freedom of the Constitution was
ignored and persecution was almost constant. Baptists, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists, German Lutherans, Methodists, Plymouth Brethren and
others shared in these efforts. Mrs. Gulick founded and developed to
great usefulness a school for girls. /The multiplicity of organizations and
the number of small independent missions, feebly supported, prevented
Protestantism from making the impression to which it was entitled.

No full understanding of the work of American churches in Europe
can be had without taking account of the history of Protestant movements
within each of the countries; of the influence of the kaleidoscopic political
developments; and of the remarkable -" Los von Rom" movement in the
latter half of the nineteenth century. Yet it would go beyond the pos-
sible range of this work even to outline these factors. Suffice it to say
that when the World ' War came American Baptists, Methodists and
Presbyterians were already in contact and co-operation with groups of
their fellow-Christians in a number of the European countries. At the
close of the War, conditions seemed to demand great enlargement of these
contacts.

282 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN EUROPE

The Church of England and the American Episcopal Church have long
provided religious services for tourists and English-speaking residents in
the important continental centres, and the English Church has had a small
mission to Spain, with Gibraltar as its centre, for three-quarters of a
century.

PRESBYTERIAN METHOD

Presbyterians have extended their interest helpfully into southeastern
Europe, where they are endeavouring to quicken the Reformed churches
of the several countries and to assist them in the training of an aggressively
evangelistic and competent ministry. The hope is that in these Roman
and Greek Catholic countries, where Protestantism has so long been re-
pressed and has accepted the prohibition to evangelize, the Reformed
bodies may now become active and may bring forward the religious regen-
eration of the peoples.

METHODISTS

Northern Methodists have not only given vigorous support to their
strong Italian work, where they have erected a splendid plant, on a com-
manding new site, for their institutions; they have extended their work
into Germany, into some of the states formerly included in Russia; and
for a time they sought to inaugurate extensive work in Russia itself, where
they became greatly interested in both the "Living Church" movement and
the "All Russia Evangelical Christian Union." Their work in Bulgaria
and Greece was mentioned in connection with the Near East.

Southern Methodists were awakened to an enthusiastic interest in
Europe in the expansive after-war programmes. Even before the War
dosed they had determined to face " the beginning of the work of recon-
struction to follow the great conflict." They sent two commissions to
study the situation. In their " Centenary " budgets they included five
million dollars for Europe. Notwithstanding the partial failure of these
budgets they were, as late as 1925, making provision for four hundred
thousand dollars annual budget. Their first work was for physical relief,
from which they went on to evangelistic and educational work. Their
fields were Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia. In every case they
met with quick success. Beginning in Belgium, in 1919, in six years they
had fifteen congregations with two hundred and ninety members and three
hundred and eighty-one pupils in Sunday schools. In Poland they began
in 1920, and by 1925 had seven churches with eight hundred full mem-
bers, and that in spite of such opposition that they found it necessary
to charter as a " Trading Company " to be permitted to remain in the
country at all.

Their most notable progress has been in Czechoslovakia. Opening
relief work in Prague, in 1922, they were able to organize their mission
two years later with six thousand members. With a heritage of sentiment
from the days of Huss, with the Bohemian and Moravian passion for
freedom and for religion, with the sanctification of centuries of persecu-

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE 283

tion and martyrdom, with the new nationalism headed by a Protestant for
President, the conditions in Czechoslovakia are favourable for Evangel-
ical religion. Since the War, more than a million Catholics have repudi-
ated allegiance to Rome, without going over to Protestantism. As in
other 'European countries, civil records must show religious affiliation.
Many wishing no longer to be enrolled as Catholics, and unwilling to
/profess Atheism, have been recorded as Methodists or Baptists, while not
entering these churches. They are known as " formal " members.

BAPTISTS IN EUROPE SINCE THE WAR

All the major Baptist bodies turned to Europe with enthusiastic sym-
pathy after the War. Commissions from the Southern and Northern
Conventions arid the Alliance visited the Continent and studied it com-
prehensively. Their first concern was to meet the desperate need for
food and clothing. The distribution of these to and through the Baptist
committees in. the different countries opened the way for enlargement of
evangelistic and educational fellowship and gave new standing and progress
to the Baptists in a number of countries. ' .

At a conference in London, in 1920, the Baptist bodies agreed on a
plan for comprehensive fellowship with their brethren in all parts of
Europe. Southern Baptists would be responsible for Spain and Portugal,
Jugo-Slavia, Hungary and Rumania, besides Italy, where they had been
working fifty years already; Northern Baptists for France, Belgium,
Czechoslovakia, Austria; German American Baptists for Bulgaria, and
all would co-operate through the Alliance in behalf of the new states
liberated from Russia and for the rest of Europe, including Russia. Each
of the American conventions appointed a representative to live in Europe
as a personal bond, of fellowship, Dr. Everett Gill for Southern Baptists
and Dr. W. O. Lewis for Northern, while Dr. J. H. Rushbrooke represents
the Alliance. They have all participated in the efforts to bring about
religious freedom, which was guaranteed in all countries signatory to the
Versailles Treaty. It has to be admitted that full religious liberty is .an
idea almost unapprehended in most European countries. In Austria only
limited toleration has been gained* In Rumania the struggle for toler-
ation has been difficult, but is winning. In Spain there has been toleration
grudgingly granted. Just now the Republic is adopting a Constitution
dis-establishing religion and providing afresh for liberty, as was provided
in 1868, but exercised for only two years. In Italy there has been much
uncertainty under the regnancy of Mussolini, with not a little interfer-
ence. The restoration of the Concordat, in 1929, threatened all Evan-
gelical believers with Catholic repression .or expulsion, but the practice
tends toward enlarging freedom, and the Papacy is much incensed at
the measure of freedom now allowed. The Vatican has been particularly
bitter toward the Methodists.

In ten years the Baptists have grown in Rumania from fifteen thousand
to forty-five thousand; in Hungary from seven thousand to twelve thou-
sand ; in Jugoslavia from six hundred to one thousand. In the ninety-five
years since Oncken inaugurated a Baptist church in Hamburg, Baptists

282 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN EUROPE

The Church of England and the American Episcopal Church have long
provided religious services for tourists and English-speaking residents in
the important continental centres, and the English Church has had a small
mission to Spain, with Gibraltar as its centre, for three-quarters of a
century.

PRESBYTERIAN METHOD

Presbyterians have extended their interest helpfully into southeastern
Europe, where they are endeavouring to quicken the Reformed churches
of the several countries and to assist them in the training of an aggressively
evangelistic and competent ministry. The hope is that in these Roman
and Greek Catholic countries, where Protestantism has so long been re-
pressed and has accepted the prohibition to evangelize, the Reformed
bodies may now become active and may bring forward the religious regen-
eration of the peoples.

METHODISTS

Northern Methodists have not only given vigorous support to their
strong Italian work, where they have erected a splendid plant, on a com-
manding new site, for their institutions; they have extended their work
into Germany, into some of the states formerly included in Russia; and
for a time they sought to inaugurate extensive work in Russia itself, where
they became greatly interested in both the "Living Church" movement and
the "All Russia Evangelical Christian Union." Their work in Bulgaria
and Greece was mentioned in connection with the Near East.

Southern Methodists were awakened to an enthusiastic interest in
Europe in the expansive after-war programmes. Even before the War
dosed they had determined to face "the beginning of the work of recon-
struction to follow the great conflict." They sent two commissions to
study the situation. In their " Centenary " budgets they included five
million dollars for Europe. Notwithstanding the partial failure of these
budgets they were, as late as 1925, making provision for four hundred
thousand dollars annual budget. Their first work was for physical relief,
from which they went on to evangelistic and educational work. Their
fields were Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia. In every case they
met with quick success. Beginning in Belgium, in 1919, in six years they
had fifteen congregations with two hundred and ninety members and three
hundred and eighty-one pupils in Sunday schools. In Poland they began
in 1920, and by 1925 had seven churches with eight hundred full mem-
bers, and that in spite of such opposition that they found it necessary
to charter as a " Trading Company " to be permitted to remain in the
country at all.

Their most notable progress has been in Czechoslovakia. Opening
relief work in Prague, in 1922, they were able to organize their mission
two years later with six thousand members. With a heritage of sentiment
from the days of Huss, with the Bohemian and Moravian passion for
freedom and for religion, with the sanctification of centuries of persecu-

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE 283

tion and martyrdom, with the new nationalism headed by a Protestant for
President, the conditions in Czechoslovakia are favourable for Evangel-
ical religion. Since the War, more than a million Catholics have repudi-
ated allegiance to Rome, without going over to Protestantism. As in
other 'European countries, civil records must show religious affiliation.
Many wishing no longer to be enrolled as Catholics, and unwilling to
/profess Atheism, have been recorded as Methodists or Baptists, while not
entering these churches. They are known as " formal " members.

BAPTISTS IN EUROPE SINCE THE WAR

All the major Baptist bodies turned to Europe with enthusiastic sym-
pathy after the War. Commissions from the Southern and Northern
Conventions arid the Alliance visited the Continent and studied it com-
prehensively. Their first concern was to meet the desperate need for
food and clothing. The distribution of these to and through the Baptist
committees in. the different countries opened the way for enlargement of
evangelistic and educational fellowship and gave new standing and progress
to the Baptists in a number of countries. .

At a conference in London, in 1920, the Baptist bodies agreed on a
plan for comprehensive fellowship with their brethren in all parts of
Europe. Southern Baptists would be responsible for Spain and Portugal,
Jugo-Slavia, Hungary and Rumania, besides Italy, where they had been
working fifty years already; Northern Baptists for France, Belgium,
Czechoslovakia, Austria; German American Baptists for Bulgaria, and
all would co-operate through the Alliance in behalf of the new states
liberated from Russia and for the rest of Europe, including Russia. Each
of the American conventions appointed a representative to live in Europe
as a personal bond, of fellowship, Dr. Everett Gill for Southern Baptists
and Dr. W. O. Lewis for Northern, while Dr. J. H. Rushbrooke represents
the Alliance. They have all participated in the efforts to bring about
religious freedom, which was guaranteed in all countries signatory to the
Versailles Treaty. It has to be admitted that full religious liberty is .an
idea almost unapprehended in most European countries. In Austria only
limited toleration has been gainedi In Rumania the struggle for toler-
ation has been difficult, but is winning. In Spain there has been toleration
grudgingly granted. Just now the Republic is adopting a Constitution
dis-establishing religion and providing afresh for liberty, as was provided
in 1868, but exercised for only two years. In Italy there has been much
uncertainty under the regnancy of Mussolini, with not a little interfer-
ence. The restoration of the Concordat, in 1929, threatened all Evan-
gelical believers with Catholic repression .or expulsion, but the practice
tends toward enlarging freedom, and the Papacy is much incensed at
the measure of freedom now allowed. The Vatican has been particularly
bitter toward the Methodists.

In ten years the Baptists have grown in Rumania from fifteen thousand
to forty-five thousand; in Hungary from seven thousand to twelve thou-
sand; in Jugoslavia from six hundred to one thousand. In the ninety-five
years since Oncken inaugurated a Baptist church in Hamburg, Baptists

284 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

in Germany have come to number approximately seventy thousand, besides
considerable numbers who have gone from Germany to other countries.
The American Baptist Publication Society and the Foreign Missionary
Union have given financial help for special work, theological and publi-
cation, in some measure. In Sweden the denomination began in 1847 with
the baptism of Nilsson by Oncken, and has grown even somewhat more
than in Germany, and was host to the World Alliance in Stockholm, in
1923. In Czechoslovakia, Baptists began colportage work in 1877, and
founded their first church under lead of Henry Novotny, in 1885. Under
encouragement of Northern and British Baptists, they have grown to some
three thousand, with a strong theological school in Prague.

In France, the McAll Mission, from 1871, has carried on in many
stations, not only in Paris but in various cities in the provinces.- It has
not organized churches, but sought to produce vital religious experience
and advised its converts to join Evangelical churches, as many have done.
Northern Baptists have made a number of attempts, since 1832, and have
aided the Baptist ministers and churches, but the work has not prospered
greatly. Growth in Esthonia and Latvia since 1920 has been healthy and
rapid for Baptists, who number from four thousand to six -thousand in
each case, as also in Norway, Denmark, and Holland, with smaller numbers
in other countries.

The Alliance has provided bonds of unity and a sense of fellowship which
give a healthy hopefulness to the denomination throughout Europe. A
Baptist Union is organized in each country, .as a rule.

All the American denominations recognize that missionaries are not
needed and would be an impertinence. -Their support is chiefly for theo-
logical education, publication work and for schools for special classes. In
theological education a very few foreign teachers may be of assistance,
and Baptists have sent an American woman to lead in the development
of a women's training school in Bucharest, and may later send another
for Hungary. Some ministers come to the United States for study and
fellowship in the schools and contacts with their denominational environ-
ment, the better to carry on the work in Europe. Dr. Gill has described
the work of his board in terms that apply generally to all : " It is co-
operative, indigenous, apostolic, Bible reading and Bible founded, and a
lay preacher movement."

UNIQUE SITUATION IN RUSSIA

The situation in Russia is unique. The need for Evangelical religion
would find few to question it among people who believe in vital religion
at all. The bitter conflict which arose between the Holy Orthodox
Church and the Soviet Government immediately upon the Revolution of
1917 found the Church largely helpless after its centuries of close alli-
ance with the Czarist regime, its formalism and corruption, its neglect
of the ignorant masses of the sensitive, romantic Russians, and its equal
neglect of the Mohammedan and Buddhist millions in Asiatic Russia. The
futility of such a religion made easier the atheism of Bolshevism.

The "Living Church" movement showed for a time hopeful vitality

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE 285

and for a few years looked as if it might prove a refuge for Russians
who knew God but could not defend the corrupt and reactionary Russian
Church, and as if it might rescue the nation from the impending atheistic
era. For a short time after 1920 American Methodists sought to en-
courage this movement, but it lacked conviction, unity and cogency suffi-
cient to resist the growing anti-religious attitudes and methods of the
Soviet, and seems to have subsided, certainly for the time being.

From about the middle, and more especially in the last quarter, of the
nineteenth century there were spontaneous Evangelical movements in
south Russia, such as the Molokans and Doukobors, with much emotion-
alism and some ignorant vagaries, who, nevertheless, prepared the way
for more orderly movements. A Baptist movement in Russia was partly
spontaneous, partly promoted by German Baptist immigrants in* Russia,
then encouraged by British Baptists prior to. the formation of the Bap-
tist World Alliance (1905) which, in its turn, gave great encouragement
up to 1914, when this was no longer possible. A few of their preachers
had studied in Spurgeon's theological college. There were two sections
of the Baptist movement. That arising in southern Russia the Ukraine,
etc. took the Baptist name, was more spontaneous and more influenced
by German Baptists. It came to be organized as the All-Russia Baptist
Union and located its headquarters in Moscow. The other, with St.
Petersburg as its centre, originated in part from contacts of aristocratic
Russians with British Baptists qf influence, and had the encouragement
of British agencies. It was organized as the All-Russia Evangelical
Christian Union. Both unions had come to have churches throughout
European Russia and, largely through the exiling of their ministers and
other evangelistic workers, extended their work into Siberia. Both bodies
joined the Baptist World Alliance, and remain members of it. Together
they reckoned about a quarter of a million communicants, in 1914. When
it became possible to re-establish contacts with them after the War, they
were found to have grown enormously, numbering certainly no less than
one million. German Baptists evangelized extensively among the great
numbers of Russian prisoners during the War.

American Methodists and. Disciples became greatly interested in "the
Evangelical Union and undertook to establish friendly relations with
them. Through visits of the President of the Union, Prokanoff, the Dis-
ciples continue friendly relations and some irregular financial support.
For a time the Baptists were able to gain at least toleration from the
Soviet Government, but since 1928 have been hampered, repressed and
persecuted with vicious determination to extinguish them.

The Church of England has long maintained very friendly relations
with some of the Orthodox clergy and have encouraged their efforts to
cultivate spiritual religion within the Orthodox Church, but English
churchmen would not,, of course, think of this as " missionary " work.
. Reports of large numbers of converts to Evangelical faith among
Russians in Poland since the War have substantial basis of fact but, un-
fortunately, cannot be fully credited. The twelve thousand Baptists there
include many counted in the emotional revivals which lack thoroughness.

284 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

in Germany have come to number approximately seventy thousand, besides
considerable numbers who have gone from Germany to other countries.
The American Baptist Publication Society and the Foreign Missionary
Union have given financial help for special work, theological and publi-
cation, in some measure. In Sweden the denomination began in 1847 with
the baptism of Nilsson by Oncken, and has grown even somewhat more
than in Germany, and was host to the World Alliance in Stockholm, in
1923. In Czechoslovakia, Baptists began colportage work in 1877, and
founded their first church under lead of Henry Novotny, in 1885. Under
encouragement of Northern and British Baptists, they have grown to some
three thousand, with a strong theological school in Prague.

In France, the McAll Mission, from 1871, has carried on in many
stations, not only in Paris but in various cities in the provinces." It has
not organized churches, but sought to produce vital religious experience
and advised its converts to join Evangelical churches, as many have done.
Northern Baptists have made a number of attempts, since 1832, and have
aided the Baptist ministers and churches, but the work has not prospered
greatly. Growth in Esthonia and Latvia since 1920 has been healthy and
rapid for Baptists, who number from four thousand to six thousand in
each case, as also in Norway, Denmark, and Holland, with smaller numbers
in other countries.

The Alliance has provided bonds of unity and a sense of fellowship which
give a healthy hopefulness to the denomination throughout Europe. A
Baptist Union is organized in each country, .as a rule.

All the American denominations recognize that missionaries are not
needed and would be an impertinence. -Their support is chiefly for theo-
logical education, publication work and for schools for special classes. In
theological education a very few foreign teachers may be of assistance,
and Baptists have sent an American woman to lead in the development
of a women's training school in Bucharest, and may later send another
for Hungary. Some ministers come to the United States for study and
fellowship in the schools and contacts with their denominational environ-
ment, the better to carry on the work in Europe. Dr. Gill has described
the work of his board in terms that apply generally to all : " It is co-
operative, indigenous, apostolic, Bible reading and Bible founded, and a
lay preacher movement."

UNIQUE SITUATION IN RUSSIA

The situation in Russia is unique. The need for Evangelical religion
would find few to question it among people who believe in vital religion
at all. The bitter conflict which arose between the Holy Orthodox
Church and the Soviet Government immediately upon the Revolution of
1917 found the Church largely helpless after its centuries of close alli-
ance with the Czarist regime, its formalism and corruption, its neglect
of the ignorant masses of the sensitive, romantic Russians, and its equal
neglect of the Mohammedan and Buddhist millions in Asiatic Russia. The
futility of such a religion made easier the atheism of Bolshevism.

The "Living Church" movement showed for a time hopeful vitality

AMERICA RECOGNIZES HER DEBT TO EUROPE 285

and for a few years looked as if it might prove a refuge for Russians
who knew God but could not defend the corrupt and reactionary Russian
Church, and as if it might rescue the nation from the impending atheistic
era. For a short time after 1920 American Methodists sought to en-
courage this movement, but it lacked conviction, unity and cogency suffi-
cient to resist the growing anti-religious attitudes and methods of the
Soviet, and seems to have subsided, certainly for the time being.

From about the middle, and more especially in the last quarter, of the
nineteenth century there were spontaneous Evangelical movements in
south Russia, such as the Molokans and Doukobors, with much emotion-
alism and some ignorant vagaries, who, nevertheless, prepared the way
for more orderly movements. A Baptist movement in Russia was partly
spontaneous, partly promoted by German Baptist immigrants in' Russia,
then encouraged by British Baptists prior to. the formation of the Bap-
tist World Alliance (1905) which, in its turn, gave great encouragement
up to 1914, when this was no longer possible. A few of their preachers
had studied in Spurgeon's theological college. There were two sections
of the Baptist movement. That arising in southern Russia the Ukraine,
etc. took the Baptist name, was more spontaneous and more influenced
by German Baptists. It came to be organized as the All-Russia Baptist
Union and located its headquarters in Moscow. The other, with St.
Petersburg as its centre, originated in part from contacts of aristocratic
Russians with British Baptists qf influence, and had the encouragement
of British agencies. It was organized as the All-Russiia Evangelical
Christian Union. Both unions had come to have churches throughout
European Russia and, largely through the exiling of their ministers and
other evangelistic workers, extended their work into Siberia. Both bodies
joined the Baptist World Alliance, and remain members of it. Together
they reckoned about a quarter of a million communicants, in 1914. When
it became possible to re-establish contacts with them after the War, they
were found to have grown enormously, numbering certainly no less than
one million. German Baptists evangelized extensively among the great
numbers of Russian prisoners during the War.

American Methodists and. Disciples became greatly interested in "the
Evangelical Union and undertook to establish friendly relations with
them. Through visits of the President of the Union, Prokanoff, the Dis-
ciples continue friendly relations and some irregular financial support.
For a time the Baptists were able to gain at least toleration from the
Soviet Government, but since 1928 have been hampered, repressed and
persecuted with vicious determination to extinguish them.

The Church of England has long maintained very friendly relations
with some of the Orthodox clergy and have encouraged their efforts to
cultivate spiritual religion within the Orthodox Church, but English
churchmen would not,, of course, think of this as " missionary " work.
. Reports of large numbers of converts to Evangelical faith among
Russians in Poland since the War have substantial basis of fact but, un-
fortunately, cannot be fully credited. The twelve thousand Baptists there
include many counted in the emotional revivals which lack thoroughness.

286 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

No account of Evangelical work in Russia would be at all adequate
that failed to speak of the work among university students of the Inter-
national Student Young Men's Christian Association and the World's
Christian Student Federation. Under Jiie masterful leadership of Dr.
John Mott and others, both American and British, these organizations
have exercised a tremendous influence among students, both men an4
women. Sherwood Eddy has spoken to thousands of them, also, and has
been greatly influenced by their idealism until he has become an inter-
preter of younger Russia's hopes and aims. Baron Paul Nicolay was
largely a product of this student work, and his saintly life and sacrificial
missionary labours constitute a classic of Christian devotion.

Just now Soviet Russia is exhibiting the most determined effort to
destroy religious faith in an entire nation ever put forth in human his-
tory. No report can be made of the status of any phase of that Evangelical
movement which, in 1920, gave promise of a reformation comparable to
that of Western Europe in the sixteenth century.

XXI

> MISSIONS TO JEWS

THROUGHOUT their history the relations between Jews and Chris-
tians have not been creditable to either. The blame rests on both
sides. It would be as impossible as useless' to weigh the blame of the
one over against the other. From our side it is for Christians to con-
fess their sins and mend their ways. That confession and amendment .
are increasing must be evident to any one who is at pains to observe the
course of events in their relations in modern times. Since the recent
war there is a very marked growth, in friendliness, increasingly evident in
Protestant countries and outstanding in the United States. That we are
yet far from the ideal, no friend of Jesus Christ would question.

It is not possible here to trace the efforts and the results in evangel-
izing Jews in the course of the centuries; and we may be glad that it is
not pertinent here to trace the persecutions of Jews at the hands of " Chris-
tian " states, nor the provocations which too often formed the excuses for
the unchristian procedure.

No century has $een without the accession of Jewish converts, few
without its notable Jewish Christiaa leaders. . Prior to the Reformation
there were special efforts directed toward the conversion of Jews, in Spain
in the seventh, eleventh, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; in France in
the fifteenth and seventeenth; in Italy in the sixteenth, when a long list
of distinguished converts can ,be named; in England, where special pro-
visions were made for Jewish Christians in the sixteenth century, when
Tremellius, a converted Jew, was professor in Cambridge and wrote A
Catechism for Inquiring Jews;, and again in the seventeenth century,
when Cromwell readmitted Jews to England, after which " some notable
conversions occurred;" in Germany, where, in 1434, the Council at Basel
decreed that "the bishops everywhere should see that the Jews were. in-
structed in the Christian religion," and where "shortly before the Refor-
mation . . . many a Jew was brought Ho the truth as it is in Christ^
without compulsion," and in the seventeenth century Esdras Edzard devoted
himself to personal work in behalf of Jews, used his fortune for helping
the converts to a livelihood, attracted "scholars from all parts of Europe
to Hamburg" to learn from him how to converse with Jews and refute
their arguments, established a fund the interest of which was to be de-
voted to missions among Jews, and which continues to be so used to the
present day; in Holland, where the various synods at different times in
the seventeenth century "passed resolutions concerning the spiritual wel-
fare of the Jews," and where many great church leaders, including Grotius,
"wrote with a view of convincing the Jews, and many a Jew was received
into the Church."

287

286 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

No account of Evangelical work in Russia would be at all adequate
that failed to speak of the work among university students of the Inter-
national Student Young Men's Christian Association and the World's
Christian Student Federation. Under Jfoe masterful leadership of Dr.
John Mott and others, both American and British, these organizations
have exercised a tremendous influence among students, both men an4
women. Sherwood Eddy has spoken to thousands of them, also, and has
been greatly influenced by their idealism until he has become an inter-
preter of younger Russia's hopes and aims. Baron Paul Nicolay was
largely a product of this student work, and his saintly life and sacrificial
missionary labours constitute a classic of Christian devotion.

Just now Soviet Russia is exhibiting the most determined effort to
destroy religious faith in an entire nation ever put forth in human his-
tory. No report can be made of the status of any phase of that Evangelical
movement which, in 1920, gave promise of a reformation comparable to
that of Western Europe in the sixteenth century.

XXI

} MISSIONS TO JEWS

THROUGHOUT their history the relations between Jews and Chris-
tians have not been creditable to either. The blame rests on both
sides. It would be as impossible as useless' to weigh the blame of the
one over against the other. From our side it is for Christians to con-
fess their sins and mend their ways. That confession and amendment
are increasing must be evident to any one who is at pains to observe the
course of events in their relations in modern times. Since the recent
war there is a very marked growth, in friendliness, increasingly evident in
Protestant countries and outstanding in the United States. That we are
yet far from the ideal, no friend of Jesus Christ would question.

It is not possible here to trace the efforts and the results in evangel-
izing Jews in the course of the centuries; and we may be glad that it is
not pertinent here to trace the persecutions of Jews at the hands of " Chris-
tian " states, nor the provocations which too often formed the excuses for
the unchristian procedure.

No century has been without the accession of Jewish converts, few
without its notable Jewish Christian leaders. . Prior to the Reformation
there were special efforts directed toward the conversion of Jews, in Spain
in the seventh, eleventh, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; in France in
the fifteenth and seventeenth; in Italy in the sixteenth, when a long list
of distinguished converts can ,be named; in England, where special pro-
visions were made for Jewish Christians in the sixteenth century, when
Tremellius, a converted Jew, was professor in Cambridge and wrote A
Catechism for Inquiring Jews;, and again in the seventeenth century,
when Cromwell readmitted Jews to England, after which "some notable
conversions occurred;" in Germany, where, in 1434, the Council at Basel
decreed that "the bishops everywhere should see that the Jews were. in-
structed in the Christian religion," and where "shortly before the Refor-
mation . . . many a Jew was brought Ho the truth as it is in Christ,
without compulsion/' and in the seventeenth century Esdras Edzard devoted
himself to personal work in behalf of Jews, used his fortune for helping
the converts to a livelihood, attracted " scholars from all parts of Europe
to Hamburg" to learn from him how to converse with Jews and refute
their arguments, established a fund the interest of which was to be de-
voted to missions among Jews, and which continues to be so used to the
present day; in Holland, where the various synods at different times in
the seventeenth century "passed resolutions concerning the spiritual wel-
fare of the Jews," and where many great church leaders, including Grotius,
" wrote with a view of convincing the Jews, and many a Jew was received
into the Church."

287

288 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Luther for a time seems to have had a theoretical interest in the con-
version of the Jews, but not to have followed it up. In connection with
the Pietistic movement centreing in the University of Halle, "an interest
for the Jews was evinced exceeding anything known in former periods
of the Church." Professor Callenberg" lectured in Jewish-German and is
reported to have had as many as one hundred and fifty in his classes,
many studying in order to make themselves efficient in dealing with Jews.
Muller of Gotha distinguished himself in winning Jews, and wrote a tract
in Yiddish (Jewish-German) designed to prepare Jews for accepting
Jesus as Messiah. This was taken up by Dr. Frommann, a Jewish con-
vert, who procured its translation into Hebrew, Dutch, German, French
and English. It was published in 1734 by the Society for the Promotion
jof Christian Knowledge with the title, The Light at Eventide, and has
continued in use these two hundred years. The "Callenberg Institution"
for the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans was founded in Halle in
1728, and continued until 1792. Interest spread to other parts of Europe.

One of the first two Moravian missionaries, Dober, after a few years in
the West Indies, became so interested in the conversion of the Jews that he
went to Amsterdam, where he set in motion a successful work for them.

JEWS IN MODERN MISSIONARY PROGRAMME

The putting of Jewish missions into the modern scheme really dates
from 1801. In that year three students of Father Janicke, in Berlin,
unable to get any German backing to go as missionaries, were called to
London for service with the London Missionary Society. One of these
was C. F. Frey, a Baptist Jew. While waiting in London, he went among
the Jews and felt led to give himself to evangelizing them. The society
yielded to his request, he proceeded to prepare himself for this particular
work, and began it in 1805. After three years it seemed wise to have
an organization exclusively concerned for Jewish evangelization, and in
1809 The London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews
was organized. It has been conducted with ability and devotion, extended
its work to various points on the Continent, to north Africa, Turkey,
Syria, Palestine and Persia. In 1901 it had one hundred and ninety-nine
missionaries, ninety of whom were Jews. In its first hundred years it
could account for five thousand Jews baptized. The Church of England
has led in interest in the Jews. Connected with it are, besides the original
society, the Parochial Mission (1875), the Barbican, and the Mildmay
Missions (1876), and a Fund for supporting the Church's work in Jeru-
salem and the East. Furthermore, in many parishes in London, and some
in other cities, special provision is made for Jewish work. There are
four B Irtish organizations of Presbyterians for work among Jews which
do a large and widely extended work. The Extra-denominational British
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews, founded in
1842, is one of the major agencies.

In practically all countries of Continental Europe there have been
missions to Jews, but no organizations have attained eminence as in Great
Britain.

MISSIONS TO JEWS 289

In America, Rabbi Judah Morris was baptized, in Boston, in 1730, the
first of record for this country. He was later a professor in Harvard.
While some interest was shown in Jews, there was no organized mission
to them until Frey came from London to New York, in 1816. ~ There
were then few Jews in America, but he went to work among them, and in
1819 formed a Society for the Evangelization of the JewSj but it never
developed extensive work. The same must be said of a number of other
efforts. In the latter part of the nineteenth century Jews flocked to the
United States from Europe until this country came to be, after Russia,
the greatest Jewish land in the world. Of thirty-two societies in the
United States, in 1900, as listed by Thompson, only three were as much
as twenty-five years old, and. the chief of these, .the Presbyterian Board
of Foreign Missions, only included Jews in its general plans. Many 6f
the organizations were of .very recent origin. The large majority were
local and only two had as many as five stations. Eleven find place .in
the World Missionary Atlas of 1925, the oldest being the Chicago Hebrew
Mission, 1887. The eleven had ninety-two missionaries in twenty-five
stations and reported .one hundred and twenty baptisms the preceding
year. The same table lists ten British organizations, with two hundred"
and twenty-six missionaries in sixty-two stations, and two hundred and
thirty-one baptisms; nine Continental Societies with forty workers in
twenty stations. Altogether, this table takes account of thirty-two socie-
ties and missions, having three hundred and seventy-four missionaries in
one hundred and eleven residence stations and nine out-stations. One
hundred and seventy-six of the workers were Hebrew Christians. Bap-
tisms during the preceding year were not reported in many cases, hence
the three hundred and fifty-one does not represent the total. There were
numerous local and recent small missions of which the Atlas table took
no account. Thompson's lists, published in 1902, contain statistics of
thirty-two American, twenty-eight British, twenty-one Continental "Socie-
ties at present in existence," arid also two in- Africa (Alexandria and
Cairo), three in Palestine, one in Calcutta, three in Australia, a total of
ninety, with two "hundred and thirteen stations, six hundred and forty-
eight missionaries, and an income of six hundred and seventy-three thousand
dollars. In 1916 Robinson estimated ninety-five societies, with about eight
hundred and fifty missionaries.

SUMMARY OF WORK AND R3SUI/TS

The World War greatly disturbed work among Jews in Europe. In
the after-war period there have been great numbers of converts. It must
be feared that prudential considerations influenced at least a considerable
number of these in some countries.

We have seen that in Great Britain the Episcopalians and Presbyterians
have been foremost in activity for Jewish evangelization. In America, in-
cluding Canada, the Presbyterians are far the most active denomination,
doing more than all others. Several independent and inter-denominational
efforts have been undertaken. Of these the Chicago Hebrew Mission is
the largest and most successful.

288 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

Luther for a time seems to have had a theoretical interest in the con-
version of the Jews, but not to have followed it up. In connection with
the Pietistic movement centreing in the University of Halle, "an interest
for the Jews was evinced exceeding anything known in former periods
of the Church." Professor Callenberg' lectured in Jewish-German and is
reported to have had as many as one hundred and fifty in his classes,
many studying in order to make themselves efficient in dealing with Jews.
M tiller of Gotha distinguished himself in winning Jews, and wrote a tract
in Yiddish (Jewish-German) designed to prepare Jews for accepting
Jesus as Messiah. This was taken up by Dr. Frommann, a Jewish con-
vert, who procured its translation into Hebrew, Dutch, German, French
and English. It was published in 1734 by the Society for the Promotion
_pf Christian Knowledge with the title, The Light at Eventide, and has
continued in use these two hundred years. The "Callenberg Institution"
for the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans was founded in Halle in
1728, and continued until 1792. Interest spread to other parts of Europe.

One of the first two Moravian missionaries, Dober, after a few years in
the West Indies, became so interested in the conversion of the Jews that he
went to Amsterdam, where he set in motion a successful work for them.

JEWS IN MODERN MISSIONARY PROGRAMME

The putting of Jewish missions into the modern scheme really dates
from 1801. In that year three students of Father Janicke, in Berlin,
unable to get any German backing to go as missionaries, were called to
London for service with the London Missionary Society. One of these
was C. F. Frey, a Baptist Jew. While waiting in London, he went among
the Jews and felt led to give himself to evangelizing them. The society
yielded to his request, he proceeded to prepare himself for this particular
work, and began it in 1805. After three years it seemed wise to have
an organization exclusively concerned for Jewish evangelization, and in
1809 The London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews
was organized. It has been conducted with ability and devotion, extended
its work to various points on the Continent, to north Africa, Turkey,
Syria, Palestine and Persia. In 1901 it had one hundred and ninety-nine
missionaries, ninety of whom were Jews. In its first hundred years it
could account for five thousand Jews baptized. The Church of England
has led in interest in the Jews. Connected with it are, besides the original
society, the Parochial Mission (1875), the Barbican, and the Mildmay
Missions (1876), and a Fund for supporting the Church's work in Jeru-
salem and the East. Furthermore, in many parishes in London, and some
in other cities, special provision is made for Jewish work. There are
four B Irtish organizations of Presbyterians for work among Jews which
do a large and widely extended work. The Extra-denominational British
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews, founded in
1842, is one of the major agencies.

In practically all countries of Continental Europe there have been
missions to Jews, but no organizations have attained eminence as in Great
Britain.

MISSIONS TO JEWS 289

In America, Rabbi Judah Morris was baptized, in Boston, in 1730, the
first of record for this country. He was later a professor in Harvard.
While some interest was shown in Jews, there was no organized mission
to them until Frey came from London to New York, in 1816. "There
were then few Jews in America, but he went to work among them, and in
1819 formed a Society for the Evangelization of the Jews, but it never
developed extensive work. The same must be said of a number of other
efforts. In the latter part of the nineteenth century Jews flocked to the
United States from Europe until this country came to be, after Russia,
the greatest Jewish land in the world. Of thirty-two societies in the
United States, in 1900, as listed by Thompson, only three were as much
as twenty-five years old, and the chief of these, .the Presbyterian Board
of Foreign Missions, only included Jews in its general plans. Many 6f
the organizations were of .very recent origin. The large majority were
local and only two had as many as five stations. Eleven find place .in
the World Missionary Atlas of 1925, the oldest being the Chicago Hebrew
Mission, 1887. The eleven had ninety-two missionaries in twenty-five
stations and reported .one hundred and twenty baptisms the preceding
year. The same table lists ten British organizations, with two hundred"
and twenty-six missionaries in sixty-two stations, and two hundred and
thirty-one baptisms; nine Continental Societies with forty workers in
twenty stations. Altogether, this table takes account of thirty-two socie-
ties and missions, having three hundred and seventy-four missionaries in
one hundred and eleven residence stations and nine out-stations. One
hundred and seventy-six of the workers were Hebrew Christians. Bap-
tisms during the preceding year were not reported in many cases, hence
the three hundred and fifty-one does not represent the total. There were
numerous local and recent small missions of which the Atlas table took
no account. Thompson's lists, published in 1902, contain statistics of
thirty-two American, twenty-eight British, twenty-one Continental "Socie-
ties at present in existence," arid also two in- Africa (Alexandria and
Cairo), three in Palestine, one in Calcutta, three in Australia, a total of
ninety, with two " hundred and thirteen stations, six hundred and forty-
eight missionaries, and an income of six hundred and seventy-three thousand
dollars. In 1916 Robinson estimated ninety-five societies, with about eight
hundred and fifty missionaries.

SUMMARY OF WORK AND RSUI/TS

The World War greatly disturbed work among Jews in Europe. In
the after-war period there have been great numbers of converts. It must
be feared that prudential considerations influenced at least a considerable
number of these in some countries.

We have seen that in Great Britain the Episcopalians and Presbyterians
have been foremost in activity for Jewish evangelization. In America, in-
cluding Canada, the Presbyterians are far the most active denomination,
doing more than all others. Several independent and inter-denominational
efforts have been undertaken. Of these the Chicago Hebrew Mission is
he largest and most successful.

290 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The Hebrew Christian Alliance began the publication o a quarterly
in 1915, was incorporated in Illinois in 1917. It has served to encourage
many small missions with a sense of larger fellowship and greater strength,
and has through its literature and in other ways strengthened and promoted
the work. In 1930 they held a world conference of Hebrew Christians
for several days in Warsaw.

There have been various efforts to ascertain the number of converts
from Judaism to Christianity in the nineteenth century. Of necessity
there must be a good deal of uncertainty in any such estimates. It is
worthy of note that no competent student places the number below two
hundred thousand, and some would claim three hundred thousand. Robin-
son estimates seventy-four thousand five hundred for the Great Orthodox
churches, fifty-seven thousand three hundred Roman Catholics, twenty-eight
thousand eight hundred and thirty Anglicans, seventy-two thousand seven
hundred and forty for other churches/ total two hundred and thirty-three
thousand three hundred and seventy. Even the lower figure indicates re-
markable success among the now only sixteen million Jews in the world,
as compared with the results among other races.

The converts have been most largely from the Orthodox Jews, the Re-
formed being personally more friendly with Gentiles, but religiously less
accessible, which is natural where the basal religious convictions have
been shaken and scepticism has so sadly questioned all eternal values.
It may be suggested that the progressive Jews are in a transition stage, and
that they may be won increasingly to faith in Christ Jesus. Considerable
numbers have gone into Christian Science churches, which suggests that
Evangelical Christians might with proper methods have satisfied an evi-
dent hunger of Jews for a new faith. They will not likely be won
through distinctively Jewish missions. Robinson well says : " Some of the
most fruitful work which is being done amongst Jews in England is car-
ried on as part of the ordinary parochial machinery of the many parishes
in East London, which contain a large Jewish population." He gives
interesting examples. With growing friendliness between Jews and Gen-
tiles and with vastly increasing co-operation among Jews and Christians
in social undertakings and relief movements, and the efforts on all hands
to transcend racial antagonisms, Jews will be recognized by the Church
not as a people apart to be ignored, as has been the vicious custom in the
past, but as a part of their normal responsibility. As this comes about
and each church assumes evangelistic responsibility for its own parish
Jewish converts will greatly increase, but they will no longer be tabu-
lated as such. This will not for a long while make undesirable and un-
necessary some special Jewish missions. It will become the more extensive
and successful method. Already there are Jewish members of many Chris-
tian congregations taking their place without ostentation and without
miration.

It continues, unfortunately, true that the vast majority of converts lose
all standing with their Jewish race, in family, social and business rela-
tionships. Most Jews do not yet distinguish between race and religion;
and to claim his share in the Christ of the Jews usually means for one

MISSIONS TO JEWS 291

to lose his Jewish heritage in all human relations. On this account those
in position to know testify that there aje many who are disciples "but
secretly for fear of the Jews."

There has developed a Christian literature for the Jews and a tech-
nique in approaching them that can be made available for increasing
numbers of Christians who will accept the obligation and seek the op-
portunity to fulfill the wish of our Lord that we bring His love to His
nation.

While "nearly eighteen hundred years were allowed to pass before the
New Testament was translated into their language/' in 1817, there are
now books, magazines and ably edited papers available for the Children
of Israel in every language in which they think and speak.

The Christian must accept his full share of responsibility for the mil-
lions of Jews now losing all religious faith, and the Jew must give heed
to the meaning of his history and his ancient religion. He must claim
for himself the full reward of that divine approach for which he has been
God's channel for blessing all the families of the earth.

One of the striking facts in Jewish experience today is the changing
attitude toward Jesus. Rabbis and other scholarly Jews have written in-
creasingly of Jesus in recent years, and with growing appreciation they
are trying to claim their "greatest Prophet," of Whom they begin to feel
they have been robbed. They must find again, as "in the days of his
flesh," that He can be possessed only on His own terms. He and His
Father are one. " If any man honour the Son, him will his Father hon-
our." There is a growing number to whom He can say as to the lawyer who
approved His teaching : " Thou art not far from the Kingdom."

290 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

The Hebrew Christian Alliance began the publication of a quarterly
in 1915, was incorporated in Illinois in 1917. It has served to encourage
many small missions with a sense of larger fellowship and greater strength,
and has through its literature and in other ways strengthened and promoted
the work. In 1930 they held a world conference of Hebrew Christians
for several days in Warsaw.

There have been various efforts to ascertain the number of converts
from Judaism to Christianity in the nineteenth century. Of necessity
there must be a good deal of uncertainty in any such estimates. It is
worthy of note that no competent student places the number below two
hundred thousand, and some would claim three hundred thousand. Robin-
son estimates seventy-four thousand five hundred for the Great Orthodox
churches, fifty-seven thousand three hundred Roman Catholics, twenty-eight
thousand eight hundred and thirty Anglicans, seventy-two thousand seven
hundred and forty for other churches/ total two hundred and thirty-three
thousand three hundred and seventy. Even the lower figure indicates re-
markable success among the now only sixteen million Jews in the world,
as compared with the results among other races.

The converts have been most largely from the Orthodox Jews, the Re-
formed being personally more friendly with Gentiles, but religiously less
accessible, which is natural where the basal religious convictions have
been shaken and scepticism has so sadly questioned all eternal values.
It may be suggested that the progressive Jews are in a transition stage, and
that they may be won increasingly to faith in Christ Jesus. Considerable
numbers have gone into Christian Science churches, which suggests that
Evangelical Christians might with proper methods have satisfied an evi-
dent hunger of Jews for a new faith. They will not likely be won
through distinctively Jewish missions. Robinson well says : " Some of the
most fruitful work which is being done amongst Jews in England is car-
ried on as part of the ordinary parochial machinery of the many parishes
in East London, which contain a large Jewish population." He gives
interesting examples. With growing friendliness between Jews and Gen-
tiles and with vastly increasing co-operation among Jews and Christians
in social undertakings and relief movements, and the efforts on all hands
to transcend racial antagonisms, Jews will be recognized by the Church
not as a people apart to be ignored, as has been the vicious custom in the
past, but as a part of their normal responsibility. As this comes about
and each church assumes evangelistic responsibility for its own parish
Jewish converts v/ill greatly increase, but they will no longer be tabu-
lated as such. This will not for a long while make undesirable and un-
necessary some special Jewish missions. It will become the more extensive
and successful method. Already there are Jewish members of many Chris-
tian congregations taking their place without ostentation and without
miration.

It continues, unfortunately, true that the vast majority of converts lose
all standing with their Jewish race, in family, social and business rela-
tionships. Most Jews do not yet distinguish between race and religion;
and to claim his share in the Christ of the Jews usually means for one

MISSIONS TO JEWS 291

to lose his Jewish heritage in all human relations. On this account those
in position to know testify that there a/e many who are disciples "but
secretly for fear of the Jews."

There has developed a Christian literature for the Jews and a tech-
nique in approaching them that can be made available for increasing
numbers of Christians who will accept the obligation and seek the op-
portunity to fulfill the wish of our Lord that we bring His love to His
nation.

While "nearly eighteen hundred years were allowed to pass before the
New Testament was translated into their language," in 1817, there are
now books, magazines and ably edited papers available for the Children
of Israel in every language in which they think and speak.

The Christian must accept his full share of responsibility for the mil-
lions of Jews now losing all religious faith, and the Jew must give heed
to the meaning of his history and his ancient religion. He must claim
for himself the full reward of that divine approach for which he has been
God's channel for blessing all the families of the earth.

One of the striking facts in Jewish experience today is the changing
attitude toward Jesus. Rabbis and other scholarly Jews have written in-
creasingly of Jesus in recent years, and with growing appreciation they
are trying to claim their "greatest Prophet," of Whom they begin to feel
they have been robbed. They must find again, as "in the days of his
flesh," that He can be possessed only on His own terms. He and His
Father are one. " If any man honour the Son, him will his Father hon-
our." There is a growing number to whom He can say as to the lawyer who
approved His teaching : " Thou art not far from the Kingdom."

XXII
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA was a mission field from the beginning of its
occupation by European Colonists, and remains so, with needs more
extensive and complicated and no less urgent than at any time in the
past. The westward expansion of colonial settlement created at once a
demand for "frontier" missions among the whites, while also it kept
the Indian population constantly in challenging contact. By the middle of
the nineteenth century the migration had reached the Pacific Coast, but
it was not until the twentieth century that the newer settlements became
sufficiently occupied and the churches sufficiently numerous and financially
competent for the realization that the geographical frontier no longer
existed. This did not, however, mean the completion of the task. Moral
frontiers were now to be found in all the states, and the missionary task,
instead of being finished, appears more vast than ever. To trace the
story of frontier missions would be to write the history of American
Christianity; for save a few original colonial churches, all the churches
of North America are the product of the missionary activities of voluntary
pioneer preachers and workers and of the organized efforts of the older
churches. The vast majority of churches in America began as missions
and received financial support in their earlier years. Those requiring
such fellowship and support through the Home Mission agencies are still
to be numbered by thousands. Their story lies beyond the scope of this
work. We must note, in passing, that some of the greatest religious
heroes and builders of America have been home missionary statesmen.
Baptists glory in John Mason Peck, Jonathan Going; Methodists in Jason
L,ee and Bishop Kavanaugh; Congregationalists in Marcus Whitman,
Episcopalians in Bishop Whipple, and all of them in scores of noble men
and heroic women who gave religious guidance and moral earnestness to
a growing empire. While in the United States this phase of missions is
passing, in Canada it is still in the midst. The wide stretches of farm
arid timber lands still invite the flow of immigration from the mother-
land, where economic conditions urge them forth and the immigration
laws of the United States add to Canada's gain. There the churches still
have the heavy responsibility and the sky-pilot of the lumber camp still has
his calling, and the sacrificing pastor still leads in the building of a Chris-
tian frontier.

We have seen in an earlier chapter how missionary work among fron-
tiersmen and Indians promoted the denominational unity and organization
of the different Christian bodies and prepared the way for accepting the
obligation of foreign missions. In the first instance organizations were
formed for home missions, most notably the American Missionary Associ-

292

NORTH AMERICA 293

ation; later liome and foreign missions were treated as aspects of one
responsibility and in each denomination both were directed by one board.
As both phases of work grew in magnitude it became expedient to have
separate boards for the two fields of effort. The Baptists constituted their
Home Mission Society in 1832, the Canadian Baptists in 1851, the Con-
gregationalists in 1846, etc.

It is customary for the various organizations to divide their work into
departments to care for different groups of those for whom missionary
efforts are demanded. These classifications will overlap. For example,
"City Missions" will be largely occupied with "Foreigners," and these
foreigners are in large measure "Catholics." Negroes, Indians and
Asiatics constitute distinct groups, calling for special study and specialized
efforts in each case. With the Indians we may include the Eskimos.

MOUNTAIN SECTIONS

The " Mountaineers ".of the Appalachians and the Southern highlands have
enlisted the interest and efforts of religious organizations and philanthropists
in the last fifty years to a remarkable degree. Here a strong race descended
chiefly from the early colonists, largely deriving from those who dropped -
out of the companies migrating westward from the original colonies, failed
to keep abreast of the advancing education and culture of the country.
They are religious, but relatively undeveloped and lacking in national and
race consciousness. They were in need of education of all kinds and of
the broadening of their horizons and interests until they could transcend
their provincialisms. Numerous schools of all grades have been built and
conducted among them, and they have responded in gratifying degree,
until now many of their ablest educators and religious leaders are their
own people. They take their place in all progressive work and have pro-
vided some of America's foremost leaders in all phases of life.

Presbyterians were foremost in their efforts in behalf of these "moun-
taineers." Then Baptists, Methodists and Congregationalists. For a time
Baptists conducted more extensive work than any other group, as they
should, seeing the people were very largely of this denomination. Mars
Hill Junior College, in North Carolina, and Cumberland College, at Wil-
liamsburg, Kentucky, are high-grade institutions with hundreds of students.
Berea College, Kentucky, is the most famous, most largely attended and
most generously endowed and supported institution for these "mountain-
eers?' Begun by Congregationalists, it came to , be non-denominational.
The Berry Schools, in Georgia, are also notable. We name these few
outstanding examples of scores of mountain mission schools. All this
work, requiring for a brief time extensive outlay of money and wise
leadership, quickly loses its missionary character, for the people catch step
with progress and all class consciousness, in them and for them, begins to
fade out.

INDIANS

How many Indians were grouped in the two hundred or more tribes in
the areas which became Canada and the United States can only be esti-

XXII
NORTH AMERICA

NORTH AMERICA was a mission field from the beginning of its
occupation by European Colonists, and remains so, with needs more
extensive and complicated and no less urgent than at any time in the
past. The westward expansion of colonial settlement created at once a
demand for "frontier" missions among the whites, while also it kept
the Indian population constantly in challenging contact. By the middle of
the nineteenth century the migration had reached the Pacific Coast, but
it was not until the twentieth century that the newer settlements became
sufficiently occupied and the churches sufficiently numerous and financially
competent for the realization that the geographical frontier no longer
existed. This did not, however, mean the completion of the task. Moral
frontiers were now to be found in all the states, and the missionary task,
instead of being finished, appears more vast than ever. To trace the
story of frontier missions would be to write the history of American
Christianity; for save a few original colonial churches, all the churches
of North America are the product of the missionary activities of voluntary
pioneer preachers and workers and of the organized efforts of the older
churches. The vast majority of churches in America began as missions
and received financial support in their earlier years. Those requiring
such fellowship and support through the Home Mission agencies are still
to be numbered by thousands. Their story lies beyond the scope of this
work. We must note, in passing, that some of the greatest religious
heroes and builders of America have been home missionary statesmen.
Baptists glory in John Mason Peck, Jonathan Going; Methodists in Jason
Lee and Bishop Kavanaugh; Congregationalists in Marcus Whitman,
Episcopalians in Bishop Whipple, and all of them in scores of noble men
and heroic women who gave religious guidance and moral earnestness to
a growing empire. While in the United States this phase of missions is
passing, in Canada it is still in the midst. The wide stretches of farm
arid timber lands still invite the flow of immigration from the mother-
land, where economic conditions urge them forth and the immigration
laws of the United States add to Canada's gain. There the churches still
have the heavy responsibility and the sky-pilot of the lumber camp still has
his calling, and the sacrificing pastor still leads in the building of a Chris-
tian frontier.

We have seen in an earlier chapter how missionary work among fron-
tiersmen and Indians promoted the denominational unity and organization
of the different Christian bodies and prepared the way for accepting the
obligation of foreign missions. In the first instance organizations were
formed for home missions, most notably the American Missionary Associ-

292

NORTH AMERICA 293

ation; later liome and foreign missions were treated as aspects of one
responsibility and in each denomination both were directed by one board.
As both phases of work grew in magnitude it became expedient to have
separate boards for the two fields of effort. The Baptists constituted their
Home Mission Society in 1832, the Canadian Baptists in 1851, the Con-
gregationalists in 1846, etc.

It is customary for the various organizations to divide their work into
departments to care for different groups of those for whom missionary
efforts are demanded. These classifications will overlap. For example,
"City Missions" will be largely occupied with "Foreigners," and these
foreigners are in large measure "Catholics." Negroes, Indians and
Asiatics constitute distinct groups, calling for special study and specialized
efforts in each case. With the Indians we may include the Eskimos.

MOUNTAIN SECTIONS

The " Mountaineers ".of the Appalachians and the Southern highlands have
enlisted the interest and efforts of religious organizations and philanthropists
in the last fifty years to a remarkable degree. Here a strong race descended
chiefly from the early colonists, largely deriving from those who dropped-
out of the companies migrating westward from the original colonies, failed
to keep abreast of the advancing education and culture of the country.
They are religious, but relatively undeveloped and lacking in national and
race consciousness. They were in need of education of all kinds and of
the broadening of their horizons and interests until they could transcend
their provincialisms. Numerous schools of all grades have been built and
conducted among them, and they have responded in gratifying degree,
until now many of their ablest educators and religious leaders are their
own people. They take their place in all progressive work and have pro-
vided some of America's foremost leaders in all phases of life.

Presbyterians were foremost in their efforts in behalf of these "moun-
taineers." Then Baptists, Methodists and Congregationalists. For a time
Baptists conducted more extensive work than any other group, as they
should, seeing the people were very largely of this denomination. Mars
Hill Junior College, in North Carolina, and Cumberland College, at Wil-
liamsburg, Kentucky, are high-grade institutions with hundreds of students.
Berea College, Kentucky, is the most famous, most largely attended and
most generously endowed and supported institution for these "mountain-
eers." Begun by Congregationalists, it came to , be non-denominational.
The Berry Schools, in Georgia, are also notable. We name these few
outstanding examples of scores of mountain mission schools. All this
work, requiring for a brief time extensive outlay of money and wise
leadership, quickly loses its missionary character, for the people catch step
with progress and all class consciousness, in them and for them, begins to
fade out.

INDIANS

How many Indians were grouped in the two hundred or more tribes in
the areas which became Canada and the United States can only be esti-

294 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

mated. It seems generally agreed that they did not number much more
than a million. For various reasons they diminished under the invading
white impact until, in Canada, they numbered slightly above one hundred
thousand, and in the States little more than two hundred and fifty thousand,
by 1890. By that time their habitations had at last become fairly defi-
nitely fixed, governments had undertaken more intelligent, humane and
consistent policies with them, and were at least checking the vicious in-
justices and exploitations of them, increasingly providing education and
medical care and encouragement in the opportunity of full citizenship.
They ceased to be a " vanishing race," and their numbers began to increase.
At present the States have, not including Alaska, above three hundred and
fifty thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand of whom have accepted
land allotments and entered the body politic, and all are potentially- full
citizens. Of seventy-seven thousand five hundred and ninety-seven children
eligible for school attendance in 1925, sixty-seven thousand four hundred
and thirty-eight were enrolled as follows: in Federal schools, twenty-five
thousand seven hundred and six, state public schools thirty-four thousand
four hundred and fifty-two, mission and private schools, seven thousand
two hundred and eighty. Indicating provisions for health care is the fact
that medical examination was reported for eighty-three thousand three hun-
dred and six. In Canada, the numbers are slowly increasing. The Gov-
ernment still holds them in ward and administers their affairs through a
Department of Indian Affairs, but with provision for enfranchisement,
acceptance of which involves the loss of government protection. In 1923,
above sixty-five per cent of. school children were in attendance in three
hundred and forty schools. More than a hundred "agents" were, at least
a few years ago, engaged in encouraging the Indians to settle within the
Reserves set apart for them, amounting in the aggregate to about five mil-
lion acres.

The rather extensive efforts of a number of missionaries and organiza-
tions to evangelize the Indians in the colonial days and of the denomina-
tions in the first century of national life had to be conducted in the face
of tragic and shameful disregard, on the part of white men, of the rights
of the Indians and of the principles of Christian righteousness and brother-
hood. Keeping in mind the failure of the Indians to develop a civilization
or to make intelligent use of the resources of the land Providence had
committed to them, not forgetting their nomadic habits and their savage
internecine wars, it still remains true that for the most part the record
of white occupation of the North American continent is the story at best
of neglect of a great opportunity, at worst of the inhuman treatment of
a backward people. The vicious aphorism that "there is no good Indian
but a dead one" expressed too nearly the sentiment of a majority of. the
people to make it a comfortable dictum. The work of the missionaries
in settling Christian Indians in ordered groups was marred or completely
undone again and again by the antagonism of the whites or by forced re-
moval to make way for expanding white occupation. While Canon Robin-
son is unduly severe in his denunciations of white Americans, he is just
in saying that, "Had these Christian communities been allowed to develop,

NORTH AMERICA 295

it is inconceivable that the American people could have incurred the dis-
grace of allowing the twentieth century to dawn upon their country whilst
a large proportion of its Indian subjects still remained heathen." About
half of them were still heathen at the opening of this centUry. The Chris-
tians, reckoned by Robinson at one hundred and thirty thousand, were about
equally divided between Catholics and the Evangelical denominations.

Indian evangelization in the Colonial period has been outlined in Chapter
IX. From 1789 to about 1840 there was increasing friction between the
races, actual warfare was frequent, Indians were compelled to move from
one location to another. This course culminated in the forced removal
of almost all Indians from the territory east of the Mississippi, in the
Southern states to the Indian Territory, where the five " civilized " tribes
were concentrated. Meanwhile the Indians in the northern territory were,
for the most part, gradually being forced westward, while in Canada they
were in less degree receding both westward and northward to make place
for the whites.

By this time in the States many ministers had done devoted work
among the Indians, and some of these made the march with the Indians
and did what was possible to console them and to sustain the Christian
faith of the converts and to aid in the founding of churches in their
new homes.

From 1840 the Indians were, in general, permanently located, but
with continued uncertainty in their position until about 1870, since
which time' their treatment has. been marked by growing intelligence
and justice.

Prior to American Independence, the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel took interest in work for Indians and Negroes, and were able
to report some success with Indians in several tribes. After Independence,
it was only in 1852 that the Episcopal Church undertook to open " a chain
of missions" for the Chjppewas in Minnesota. H. B. Whipple, who had
taken so much interest in the growing West, became Bishop of Minnesota
and championed the rights of Indians. He had Hare made bishop to the
Indians, and Hare won a wide reputation for his apostolic ministry. In
his long service, 1872 to 1909, he saw the work extended to a dozen states,
thousands of Indians led to Christianity and ministered to by a score of
white missionaries and equally as many Indian clergy, a force which was
largely increased in the next twenty years.

The Congregational Board began work with the Cherokees in Georgia,
in 1815. . In seventy-five years this denomination had five hundred and
twelve missionaries to Indians.

The Presbyterians made Indians one of their chief concerns, beginning
in 1843 an d consistently sustaining their work. In 1925 they reported
thirty-two missionaries and nearly seven thousand communicant members.
They have been especially active and successful in Indian Territory-
Oklahoma, but have had widespread work. Southern Presbyterians have
shared in the work, and more recently have greatly enlarged their
labours.

Methodists first undertook to evangelize Indians in 1812, but found

294 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

mated. It seems generally agreed that they did not number much more
than a million. For various reasons they diminished under the invading
white impact until, in Canada, they numbered slightly above one hundred
thousand, and in the States little more than two hundred and fifty thousand,
by 1890. By that time their habitations had at last become fairly defi-
nitely fixed, governments had undertaken more intelligent, humane and
consistent policies with them, and were at least checking the vicious in-
justices and exploitations of them, increasingly providing education and
medical care and encouragement in the opportunity of full citizenship.
They ceased to be a " vanishing race," and their numbers began to increase.
At present the States have, not including Alaska, above three hundred and
fifty thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand of whom have accepted
land allotments and entered the body politic, and all are potentially- full
citizens. Of seventy-seven thousand five hundred and ninety-seven children
eligible for school attendance in 1925, sixty-seven thousand four hundred
and thirty-eight were enrolled as follows: in Federal schools, twenty-five
thousand seven hundred and six, state public schools thirty-four thousand
four hundred and fifty-two, mission and private schools, seven thousand
two hundred and eighty. Indicating provisions for health care is the fact
that medical examination was reported for eighty-three thousand three hun-
dred and six. In Canada, the numbers are slowly increasing. The Gov-
ernment still holds them in ward and administers their affairs through a
Department of Indian Affairs, but with provision for enfranchisement,
acceptance of which involves the loss of government protection. In 1923,
above sixty-five per cent of school children were in attendance in three
hundred and forty schools. More than a hundred "agents" were, at least
a few years ago, engaged in encouraging the Indians to settle within the
Reserves set apart for them, amounting in the aggregate to about five mil-
lion acres.

The rather extensive efforts of a number of missionaries and organiza-
tions to evangelize the Indians in the colonial days and of the denomina-
tions in the first century of national life had to be conducted in the face
of tragic and shameful disregard, on the part of white men, of the rights
of the Indians and of the principles of Christian righteousness and brother-
hood. Keeping in mind the failure of the Indians to develop a civilization
or to make intelligent use of the resources of the land Providence had
committed to them, not forgetting their nomadic habits and their savage
internecine wars, it still remains true that for the most part the record
of white occupation of the North American continent is the story at best
of neglect of a great opportunity, at worst of the inhuman treatment of
a backward people. The vicious aphorism that "there is no good Indian
but a dead one" expressed too nearly the sentiment of a majority of. the
people to make it a comfortable dictum. The work of the missionaries
in settling Christian Indians in ordered groups was marred or completely
undone again and again by the antagonism of the whites or by forced re-
moval to make way for expanding white occupation. While Canon Robin-
son is unduly severe in his denunciations of white Americans, he is just
in saying that, "Had these Christian communities been allowed to develop,

NORTH AMERICA 295

it is inconceivable that the American people could have incurred the dis-
grace of allowing the twentieth century to dawn upon their country whilst
a large proportion of its Indian subjects still remained heathen." About
half of them were still heathen at the opening of this century. The Chris-
tians, reckoned by Robinson at one hundred and thirty thousand, were about
equally divided between Catholics and the Evangelical denominations.

Indian evangelization in the Colonial period has been outlined in Chapter
IX. From 1789 to about 1840 there was increasing friction between the
races, actual warfare was frequent, Indians were compelled to move from
one location to another. This course culminated in the forced removal
of almost all Indians from the territory east of the Mississippi, in the
Southern states to the Indian Territory, where the five " civilized " tribes
were concentrated. Meanwhile the Indians in the northern territory were,
for the most part, gradually being forced westward, while in Canada they
were in less degree receding both westward and northward to make place
for the whites.

By this time in the States many ministers had done devoted work
among the Indians, and some of these made the march with the Indians
and did what was possible to console them and to sustain the Christian
faith of the converts and to aid in the founding of churches in their
new homes.

From 1840 the Indians were, in general, permanently located, but
with continued uncertainty in their position until about 1870, since
which time' their treatment has. been marked by growing intelligence
and justice.

Prior to American Independence, the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel took interest in work for Indians and Negroes, and were able
to report some success with Indians in several tribes. After Independence,
it was only in 1852 that the Episcopal Church undertook to open " a chain
of missions" for the Chjppewas in Minnesota. H. B. Whipple, who had
taken so much interest in the growing West, became Bishop of Minnesota
and championed the rights of Indians. He had Hare made bishop to the
Indians, and Hare won a wide reputation for his apostolic ministry. In
his long service, 1872 to 1909, he saw the work extended to a dozen states,
thousands of Indians led to Christianity and ministered to by a score of
white missionaries and equally as many Indian clergy, a force which was
largely increased in the next twenty years.

The Congregational Board began work with the Cherokees in Georgia,
in 1815. In seventy-five years this denomination had five hundred and
twelve missionaries to Indians.

The Presbyterians made Indians one of their chief concerns, beginning
in 1843 an d consistently sustaining their work. In 1925 they reported
thirty-two missionaries and nearly seven thousand communicant members.
They have been especially active and successful in Indian Territory-
Oklahoma, but have had widespread work. Southern Presbyterians have
shared in the work, and more recently have greatly enlarged their
labours.

Methodists first undertook to evangelize Indians hi 1812, but found

296 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

themselves preoccupied with white people until a revival among the Wyan-
dot Indians, in 1819, led by a Negro, caused them to organize for missions
and to take an interest in Indian evangelization that has been continuous
and shared by both branches of this church.

Baptists founded an association especially for missions to Indians, in
1842, which undertook a large measure of work, which was merged with
that of the Southern Baptist Convention. [Northern Baptists made Indian
work a distinct feature of work after 1865, and built up two notable
schools in Oklahoma where large numbers have been trained. Both Con-
ventions have been successful and together report more than six thousand
communicants.

Besides these more extensive missions, there have been numerous smaller
undertakings.

IN ALASKA

In Alaska, the Indians and Eskimos number some forty thousand, ten
thousand of whom are reckoned as members of the Russian Orthodox
Church. Since 1880, when Presbyterians began work, all together a dozen
organizations have laboured among them. The Presbyterians and the
Episcopalians have won most of the converts, while the Moravians have
a worthy work among the Eskimos. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, Presbyterian,
was truly the apostle and protector of the Indians and later able adminis-
trator for the United States Government.

In Canada, the Indians were a care of the Church Missionary Society
from 1820, and developed successful stations in various' sections of the
country. One of the most notable was the Christian town of Metlakahtla,
the product of a layman, William Duncan. He had trouble both with the
Episcopal authorities and political authorities, and moved his town to
American territory, while Bishop Ridley took the first Metlakahtla for a
base of a series of stations. All the Anglican missions passed to the
supervision and largely to the support of the dioceses of the Canadian
Episcopal Church. Methodists were most extensively active in behalf of
the Indians, with Presbyterians much less so. Of course, this work comes
now chiefly under the United Church. Baptists have laboured faithfully in
their measure and have some two thousand Indian membership.

Of Eskimos, all together there are some forty thousand in Alaska, Canada,
Greenland and Labrador. Moravians succeeded to the Danish work in
Greenland, begun by Egede, and in 1900 transferred it again to the Danish
Church, when the Eskimos had been reduced to fewer than one thousand.
The Moravians have also cared for the small Eskimo population of Lab-
rador, where also the famous doctor, Sir Wilfred Grenfell, has included
them in his ministries to the fishermen by which he has won a name second
to none in modern missions. In Canada, among others, E. J. Peck has
made notable success, in the face of almost insuperable difficulties, in sta-
tions in the Hudson Bay country and extending even into the Arctic Circle.
Bishop Bompas has been another, of a number, of consecrated Episcopal
missionaries of sacrificial devotion among these most needy and uninspiring
people.

NORTH AMERICA 297

NEGROES IN TEE UNITED STATES

Beyond question the eleven million Negroes in the United States are
a "Problem." No one would any longer defend slave'ry, and few would
condone the repressive treatment which the slaves experienced from their
first arrival, in 1619, to their emancipation, in 1863. There is no need
here to discuss the vices and weaknesses of the Negro, or the qualities that
give him strength, beauty and promise. Nor do the limits of this work
permit any details of the story o'f the influences and activities by means of
which a larger proportion of the Negro population is incorporated in Chris-
tian churches than of any other race section of America. NOT, again, can
we find place for the marvellous progress of the Negroes in the seven
decades of freedom in material possessions, living conditions, in economic
status, in education and culture, and in the growth of a worthy race con-
sciousness. It should be kept in mind that this truly remarkable progress
cannot be emphasized, as it deserves to be, without recognizing, by impli-
cation, a very large measure of sympathy and encouragement on the part
of the dominant race in the midst of whom and by whose necessary co-
operation this progress has been made. The inequalities under which the
Negroes have suffered in the provisions of the laws and the far greater
injustices in the administration of the laws, need not be denied or mini-
mized to vindicate the claim of a general friendliness, a Christian helpful-
ness, a growing sense of justice as between the white and the black people.
As the days of slavery were left behind, the problems of race relationship
would necessarily change, and they did tend to become more difficult with
the growing intelligence and clearer definition of human and citizen rights.
For these problems the work of the Interracial Commission, with head-
quarters in Atlanta, Georgia, has been of the highest value hi recent
years, since the World War, in producing mutual understanding in co-
operation for solving problems and for Christianizing sentiments, contacts
and relations. .

Here, however, our concern must be limited to a summary outline of
the Christianizing of the Negro in America and of his growth in Chris-
tianity. It is well to put at the head of all consideration of means and
processes the large fact that fully forty per cent of the total Negro popu-
lation are communicant members^ of Evangelical churches, more than half
of them Baptists, chiefly grouped in two National Baptist Conventions, both
of which are members of the World Alliance with representatives on its
Executive Committee. There are approximately a million and a half
Methodists, organized in a number of Methodist general bodies, chief of
which is the African Methodist Episcopal Church, dating from 1812,
greatly expanding after the Emancipation, so that they numbered, by 1880,
more than four hundred thousand. Presbyterians, Congregationalists and
Episcopalians have smaller contingents. Twice in the course of the nine-
teenth century efforts were made to engage the Catholic Church in definite
undertakings to win the Negroes, but with very limited success. This
church did not seem greatly concerned. In the present century, however,
there has begun a vigorous movement which is strongly supported and
ably directed, with the success which one would expect when a spectacular

296 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

themselves preoccupied with white people until a revival among the Wyan-
dot Indians, in 1819, led by a Negro, caused them to organize for missions
and to take an interest in Indian evangelization that has been continuous
and shared by both branches of this church.

Baptists founded an association especially for missions to Indians, in
1842, which undertook a large measure of work, which was merged with
that of the Southern Baptist Convention. [Northern Baptists made Indian
work a distinct feature of work after 1865, and built up two notable
schools in Oklahoma where large numbers have been trained. Both Con-
ventions have been successful and together report more than six thousand
communicants.

Besides these more extensive missions, there have been numerous smaller
undertakings.

IN ALASKA

In Alaska, the Indians and Eskimos number some forty thousand, ten
thousand of whom are reckoned as members of the Russian Orthodox
Church. Since 1880, when Presbyterians began work, all together a dozen
organizations have laboured among them. The Presbyterians and the
Episcopalians have won most of the converts, while the Moravians have
a worthy work among the Eskimos. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, Presbyterian,
was truly the apostle and protector of the Indians and later able adminis-
trator for the United States Government.

In Canada, the Indians were a care of the Church Missionary Society
from 1820, and developed successful stations in various' sections of the
country. One of the most notable was the Christian town of Metlakahtla,
the product of a layman, William Duncan. He had trouble both with the
Episcopal authorities and political authorities, and moved his town to
American territory, while Bishop Ridley took the first Metlakahtla for a
base of a series of stations. All the Anglican missions passed to the
supervision and largely to the support of the dioceses of the Canadian
Episcopal Church. Methodists were most extensively active in behalf of
the Indians, with Presbyterians much less so. Of course, this work comes
now chiefly under the United Church. Baptists have laboured faithfully in
their measure and have some two thousand Indian membership.

Of Eskimos, all together there are some forty thousand in Alaska, Canada,
Greenland and Labrador. Moravians succeeded to the Danish work in
Greenland, begun by Egede, and in 1900 transferred it again to the Danish
Church, when the Eskimos had been reduced to fewer than one thousand.
The Moravians have also cared for the small Eskimo population of Lab-
rador, where also the famous doctor, Sir Wilfred Grenfell, has included
them in his ministries to the fishermen by which he has won a name second
to none in modern missions. In Canada, among others, E. J. Peck has
made notable success, in the face of almost insuperable difficulties, in sta-
tions in the Hudson Bay country and extending even into the Arctic Circle.
Bishop Bompas has been another, of a number, of consecrated Episcopal
missionaries of sacrificial devotion among these most needy and uninspiring
people.

NORTH AMERICA 297

NEGROES IN TEE UNITED STATES

Beyond question the eleven million Negroes in the United States are
a " Problem." No one would any longer defend slavery, and few would
condone the repressive treatment which the slaves experienced from their
first arrival, in 1619, to their emancipation, in 1863. There is no need
here to discuss the vices and weaknesses of the Negro, or the qualities that
give him strength, beauty and promise. Nor do the limits of this work
permit any details of the story o'f the influences and activities by means of
which a larger proportion of the Negro population is incorporated in Chris-
tian churches than of any other race section of America. Nor, again, can
we find place for the marvellous progress of the Negroes in the seven
decades of freedom in material possessions, living conditions, in economic
status, in education and culture, and in the growth of a worthy race con-
sciousness. It should be kept in mind that this truly remarkable progress
cannot be emphasized, as it deserves to be, without recognizing, by impli-
cation, a very large measure of sympathy and encouragement on the part
of the dominant race in the midst of whom and by whose necessary co-
operation this progress has been made. The inequalities under which the
Negroes have suffered in the provisions of the laws and the far greater
injustices in the administration of the laws, need not be denied or mini-
mized to vindicate the claim of a general friendliness, a Christian helpful-
ness, a growing sense of justice as between the white and the black people.
As the days of slavery were left behind, the problems of race relationship
would necessarily change, and they did tend to become more difficult with
the growing intelligence and clearer definition of human and citizen rights.
For these problems the work of the Interracial Commission, with head-
quarters in Atlanta, Georgia, has been of the highest value in recent
years, since the World War, in producing mutual understanding in co-
operation for solving problems and for Christianizing sentiments, contacts
and relations. .

Here, however, our concern must be limited to a summary outline of
the Christianizing of the Negro in America and of his growth in Chris-
tianity. It is well to put at the head of all consideration of means and
processes the large fact that fully forty per cent of the total Negro popu-
lation are communicant members^ of Evangelical churches, more than half
of them Baptists, chiefly grouped in two National Baptist Conventions, both
of which are members of the World Alliance with representatives on its
Executive Committee. There are approximately a million and a half
Methodists, organized in a number of Methodist general bodies, chief of
which is the African Methodist Episcopal Church, dating from 1812,
greatly expanding after the Emancipation, so that they numbered, by 1880,
more than four hundred thousand. Presbyterians, Congregationalists and
Episcopalians have smaller contingents. Twice in the course of the nine-
teenth century efforts were made to engage the Catholic Church in definite
undertakings to win the Negroes, but with very limited success. This
church did not seem greatly concerned. In the present century, however,
there has begun a vigorous movement which is strongly supported and
ably directed, with the success which one would expect when a spectacular

298 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

religion with sensuous appeal is presented to an emotional people of rela-
tively undeveloped culture. A good deal is made also of the fact that the
Catholic Church makes no racial distinction in its congregational worship,
while also the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, now happily receding, with
which some Protestant churches and ministers were openly sympathetic,
tended to urge the Negroes toward the Catholics. At the moment vigorous
protests are being made against race discriminations in Catholic churches,
especially in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc.

At the time of the Emancipation the Negroes were almost universally
nominally Christian, due almost wholly to the agencies of the slave-holding
families, the local churches, and individual ministers who devoted them-
selves to the religious needs of the slaves. Thousands of white pastors
were the teachers, friends and counsellors of the Negro preachers in their
evangelism and pastoral ministries. As a rule, Negro Christians were
enrolled in the white churches and special provision was made for them
in the meeting-houses. How little had been done for the Negro is shown
by the extensive absence of the ethical quality in his religion, which was
mainly emotional. Still it was an achievement of no small magnitude to
bring the four millions of Negro slaves to the point of their emancipation
with a conviction of and an adhesion to the Christian faith such that there
was no reaction against the religion of the erstwhile masters, and such as
set them on their way to assuming responsibility for their own Christian
institutions and progress.

Although there were definite individual and organized efforts in behalf
of Christianity for Negroes in the slavery period, these had largely to be
limited to such as procured their freedom in one way or another and in
territory outside the slave-holding states. Episcopalians, more than others,
undertook formal religious work among the slaves in a number of states,
with little success, largely because of their unwise approach and methods,
which aroused resistance of the masters. There were notable examples of
success that overcame opposition. Efforts of Northern religious bodies in
the first half of the nineteenth century were so mixed with political motives
or so much under suspicion of such motives as to make them of doubtful
net value.

After the Civil War the help of the whites assumed splendid propor-
tions. Yet the greatest help continued to be of a kind that could not be
tabulated or formally reported the help of white Christians, ministerial
and lay, in the local communities throughout the South. One of the largest
factors was the helpfulness of white women with the coloured women, no
record of which is possible until the records are laid bare by Him Who
said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these ye did it
unto me."

Besides the help of fraternal sympathy and fellowship, the greatest help
has been in the form of education, much of which at first lacked wisdom
and was attended by many mistakes and blunders. At first this came
chiefly from Northern religious bodies and individuals. Scores of noble
men and women went into the South to found schools and teach Negroes
when it meant to incur social contempt and to doom themselves to an

NORTH AMERICA 299

association from which the romantic glamour was apt soon to fade. But
time and the Christian spirit overcame, and Christians of all sections
increasingly shared in the holy business of helping the Negro race "up
from slavery/' From the beginning there were a few able Negro leaders,
whose numbers multiplied with the developing opportunities.

There have been several foundations established by individuals, used at
least in part, for the benefit of Negro education, as the Peabody Fund, the
Slater Fund, the Jaynes Fund and the Hand Fund, and several philanthro-
pists have contributed large current sums. The funds of the Rockefeller
General Education Board have been used in part in this way. Denomina-
tional organizations have been the chief factors. Northern Baptists have
conducted many schools and have founded some of high grade, among
which are Shaw University, at Raleigh, North Carolina; Morehouse Col-
lege and Spelman Seminary for Women, Atlanta, Georgia; the Union Uni-
versity with its splendid Hovey Theological School, hi Richmond, Virginia,
where also is Hartshorn College for Young Women; Roger Williams Uni-
versity, Nashville, Tennessee, and others, sixteen in all, with faculties of
some three hundred and fifty and more than six thousand students.

The American Missionary Association at first non-denominational but
actually Congregational is responsible for Fisk University, Nashville,
Tennessee, and Hampton (Virginia) Institute. The Freedmen's Bureau,
established by Congress, in 1865, to ne ^P i n tne advancement of the col-
oured race, among other activities founded Howard University, in Wash-
ington, District of Columbia, which, since 1867, has contributed greatly to
Negro education along all lines. Southern Methodists have half a dozen
excellent small colleges for Negroes in as many states, upon which they
have expended large 7 sums in recent years.

The Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, the product of Booker T. Washington,
is modelled after Hampton, one of his Alma Maters, and is a remarkable
institution wholly manned by Negroes. It is contributing to scientific
knowledge as well as developing comprehensive leadership. Negroes have
undertaken many educational enterprises, some of which have been made
highly successful. Nearly all these emphasize industrial features and con-
tribute greatly to the rounded progress of the race. Co-operation between
Methodist and Baptist general 'bodies, and similar Negro bodies, has been
in every way helpful, although financial support by the whites has been
too limited and uncertain. The Southern Baptist Convention has for sev-
eral years been co-operating with the Negro National Convention to found
and conduct the American Baptist Theological Seminary, presently located
in Nashville, Tennessee.

In the last quarter of a century the Negroes, so largely concentrated in
the South, have rapidly distributed themselves over the country, especially
in the great cities north and east. Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston,
Philadelphia and New York have now great numbers. One-fourth of the
total number now live beyond the old slave-holding borders. The Negroes
must now share, as they are well prepared to share, the task facing all
Americans of solving our complicated problems and of making America
truly Christian.

298 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

religion with sensuous appeal is presented to an emotional people of rela-
tively undeveloped culture. A good deal is made also of the fact that the
Catholic Church makes no racial distinction in its congregational worship,
while also the activities of the Ku Klux Klan, now happily receding, with
which some Protestant churches and ministers were openly sympathetic,
tended to urge the Negroes toward the Catholics. At the moment vigorous
protests are being made against race discriminations in Catholic churches,
especially in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc.

At the time of the Emancipation the Negroes were almost universally
nominally Christian, due almost wholly to the agencies of the slave-holding
families, the local churches, and individual ministers who devoted them-
selves to the religious needs of the slaves. Thousands of white pastors
were the teachers, friends and counsellors of the Negro preachers in their
evangelism and pastoral ministries. As a rule, Negro Christians were
enrolled in the white churches and special provision was made for them
in the meeting-houses. How little had been done for the Negro is shown
by the extensive absence of the ethical quality in his religion, which was
mainly emotional. Still it was an achievement of no small magnitude to
bring the four millions of Negro slaves to the point of their emancipation
with a conviction of and an adhesion to the Christian faith such that there
was no reaction against the religion of the erstwhile masters, and such as
set them on their way to assuming responsibility for their own Christian
institutions and progress.

Although there were definite individual and organized efforts in behalf
of Christianity for Negroes in the slavery period, these had largely to be
limited to such as procured their freedom in one way or another and in
territory outside the slave-holding states. Episcopalians, more than others,
undertook formal religious work among the slaves in a number of states,
with little success, largely because of their unwise approach and methods,
which aroused resistance of the masters. There were notable examples of
success that overcame opposition. Efforts of Northern religious bodies in
the first half of the nineteenth century were so mixed with political motives
or so much under suspicion of such motives as to make them of doubtful
net value.

After the Civil War the help of the whites assumed splendid propor-
tions. Yet the greatest help continued to be of a kind that could not be
tabulated or formally reported the help of white Christians, ministerial
and lay, in the local communities throughout the South. One of the largest
factors was the helpfulness of white women with the coloured women, no
record of which is possible until the records are laid bare by Him Who
said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these ye did it

unto me."

Besides the help of fraternal sympathy and fellowship, the greatest help
has been in the form of education, much of which at first lacked wisdom
and was attended by many mistakes and blunders. At first this came
chiefly from Northern religious bodies and individuals. Scores of noble
men and women went into the South to found schools and teach Negroes
when it meant to incur social contempt and to doom themselves to an

NORTH AMERICA 299

association from which the romantic glamour was apt soon to fade. But
time and the Christian spirit overcame, and Christians of all sections
increasingly shared in the holy business of helping the Negro race "up
from slavery." From the beginning there were a few able Negro leaders,
whose numbers multiplied with the developing opportunities.

There have been several foundations established by individuals, used at
least in part, for the benefit of Negro education, as the Peabody Fund, the
Slater Fund, the Jaynes Fund and the Hand Fund, and several philanthro-
pists have contributed large current sums. The funds of the Rockefeller
General Education Board have been used in part in this way. Denomina-
tional organizations have been the chief factors. Northern Baptists have
conducted many schools and have founded some of high grade, among
which are Shaw University, at Raleigh, North Carolina; Morehouse Col-
lege and Spelman Seminary for Women, Atlanta, Georgia; the Union Uni-
versity with its splendid Hovey Theological School, hi Richmond, Virginia,
where also is Hartshorn College for Young Women; Roger Williams Uni-
versity, Nashville, Tennessee, and others, sixteen in all, with faculties of
some three hundred and fifty and more than six thousand students.

The American Missionary Association at first non-denominational but
actually Congregational is responsible for Fisk University, Nashville,
Tennessee, and Hampton (Virginia) Institute. The Freedmen's Bureau,
established by Congress, in 1865, to help in the advancement of the col-
oured race, among other activities founded Howard University, in Wash-
ington, District of Columbia, which, since 1867, has contributed greatly to
Negro education along all lines. Southern Methodists have half a dozen
excellent small colleges for Negroes in as many states, upon which they
have expended large" sums in recent years.

The Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, the product of Booker T. Washington,
is modelled after Hampton, one of his Alma Maters, and is a remarkable
institution wholly manned by Negroes. It is contributing to scientific
knowledge as well as developing comprehensive leadership. Negroes have
undertaken many educational enterprises, some of which have been made
highly successful. Nearly all these emphasize industrial features and con-
tribute greatly to the rounded progress of the race. Co-operation between
Methodist and Baptist general ^bodies, and similar Negro bodies, has been
in every way helpful, although financial support by the whites has been
too limited and uncertain. The Southern Baptist Convention has for sev-
eral years been co-operating with the Negro National Convention to found
and conduct the American Baptist Theological Seminary, presently located
in Nashville, Tennessee.

In the last quarter of a century the Negroes, so largely concentrated in
the South, have rapidly distributed themselves over the country, especially
in the great cities north and east. Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston,
Philadelphia and New York have now great numbers. One-fourth of the
total number now live beyond the old slave-holding borders. The Negroes
must now share, as they are well prepared to share, the task facing all
Americans of solving our complicated problems and of making America
truly Christian.

XXIII

HITHERTO: A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL

PERIOD

THE modern history of the world is the story of the expansion of
Europe and of the changes which that expansion has effected in the
life of the world. At the beginning of modern history Europe was
Christendom. Christianity and Christendom are not the same thing, but
they are inextricably interrelated. For religion it is most important that
the distinction be recognized as far as possible. The most significant single
national result of Europe's expansion is the United States, which in turn
has had its own more or less independent expansion. All the American
nations have been produced by this history-making movement. The South,
Central and Island Americas constituted an extension of Roman Catholic
Christendom, while North America represents predominantly a wide growth
of Protestant Christendom. The Catholic represents a relatively less en-
lightened Christianity than that of the European bases whence it arose;
and it has in the new world made no contribution of progress in the devel-
opment and interpretation of religion, except that in the United States,
under the influence of the democratic ideal in religion and politics, lay
activity and influence have made distinct progress, and the ethical in-
fluences have been more clearly seen and accepted. Protestantism came
into larger freedom in its American extension and developed more thor-
oughly its generic principles, and has progressed more rapidly until it
represents the highest expression of the Protestant principles in religion
yet reached.

Similarly the expansion of Europe into South Africa has produced
another Evangelical Christian area, affected of course by the nature of the
land and of the peoples into which it came..

Besides the creation of new spheres of Christendom, including more
than a score of nations and some large and prosperous dominions approxi-
mating the status of independent nations, this expansion movement has
affected and influenced all other national and racial groups on the globe;
and there are few individuals in the world today whose life and ideas are
not largely what they are by reason of this factor in the molding of
modern history. Most of the island groups in all the seas have been sub-
ordinated to it. In all too many of them, as in the wide expanses of both
American continents and in Africa' as well, the native populations have
been definitely subordinated sometimes, alas ! decimated and even extermi-
nated by the incoming Europeans. Great and small "dependencies" have
been created, ranging from a major social section of the race, like India,
to diminutive tracts with few souls, like the islands of Guam or Yap.
Overlordships have been established like that of Great Britain in Egypt and

300

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 301

of France in Madagascar, more recently still of Italy in Abyssinia. Since
the World War the conscience of Christendom has adopted the policy of
"mandates" over backward peoples, which is at least a formal tribute to a
more human view of the rights and relations of mankind, as such.

In other cases, nations and peoples have been aroused by the impact of
European expansion into new careers in their own lives and in their rela-
tions to other peoples. Japan is the outstanding example. So com-
pletely did Japan respond to this arousing impact that in less than fifty
years after her first reaction she had entered upon a similar career of
expansion herself and had become a powerful factor in the changing of the
modern world.

One other method of impressing this expansion of Europe was estab-
lishing "spheres of influence" in areas of the world which might not be
incorporated in growing empires, nor yet subordinated into "protecto-
rates." The expanding powers sought to reach mutual agreements with
reference to these "spheres of influence" in territories nationally not to
be appropriated or disintegrated. The supreme example here is China,
where the " spheres of influence " procedure was most of all the cause of
the Boxer Uprising, in 1900, and of the injustices and handicaps under
which the Chinese have so tragically struggled in their effort to con-
struct a modern independent nation. It is quite true that in the case of
China, as of the other areas of arrested and retarded development, the
ambition for lives of modern culture was produced in reaction to this
expansion. New eras of social and national growth were induced by the
Western impact.

Singe Christendom at the opening of modern history was, mainly,
Europe it was also 7 racially white; and thus the expansion of Christen-
dom brought about white leadership, and, to a large extent, domination
of the world by the white races. This ministered to racial pride and
arrogance, as also it aroused racial resentment and bitterness when once
the coloured races came into full consciousness of the situation. It is
significant, although very generally overlooked, that the racial and colour
feature of. this expansion was little in consciousness until the world was
already practically under the leadership and direction of the white races;
and that race pride and ambitkra played^ little part in bringing about the
condition. Resentments and ambition, based on race and colour, arose
mainly after the fact was accomplished.

Now, Christian missions constitute only one phase of this world-wide
movement of Christendom in the last four centuries. We have seen that
until the Missionary Society was called into existence, under the lead of
Carey, in modern times the missionary followed in the wake of the gen-
eral expansion, but did not lead it. From Carey onward the missionary
has continued to follow up the secular outreachings of the men and insti-
tutions of Christendom; but the missionary has done much more than
this. He has been an independent pioneer and has initiated his own
movements and has guided them by principles rising quite above the secu-
lar programmes. Christianity reverted to its primitive impulses and in-
spirations .and became again on its own account a world-reaching force.

XXIII

HITHERTO: A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL

PERIOD

THE modern history of the world is the story of the expansion of
Europe and of the changes which that expansion has effected in the
life of the world. At the beginning of modern history Europe was
Christendom. Christianity and Christendom are not the same thing, but
they are inextricably interrelated. For religion it is most important that
the distinction be recognized as far as possible. The most significant single
national result of Europe's expansion is the United States, which in turn
has had its own more or less independent expansion. All the American
nations have been produced by this history-making movement. The South,
Central and Island Americas constituted an extension of Roman Catholic
Christendom, while North America represents predominantly a wide growth
of Protestant Christendom. The Catholic represents a relatively less en-
lightened Christianity than that of the European bases whence it arose;
and it has in the new world made no contribution of progress in the devel-
opment and interpretation of religion, except that in the United States,
under the influence of the democratic ideal in religion and politics, lay
activity and influence have made distinct progress, and the ethical in-
fluences have been more clearly seen and accepted. Protestantism came
into larger freedom in its American extension and developed more thor-
oughly its generic principles, and has progressed more rapidly until it
represents the highest expression of the Protestant principles in religion
yet reached.

Similarly the expansion of Europe into South Africa has produced
another Evangelical Christian area, affected of course by the nature of the
land and of the peoples into which it came..

Besides the creation of new spheres of Christendom, including more
than a score of nations and some large and prosperous dominions approxi-
mating the status of independent nations, this expansion movement has
affected and influenced all other national and racial groups on the globe;
and there are few individuals in the world today whose life and ideas are
not largely what they are by reason of this factor in the molding of
modern history. Most of the island groups in all the seas have been sub-
ordinated to it. In all too many of them, as in the wide expanses of both
American continents and in Africa' as well, the native populations have
been definitely subordinated sometimes, alas ! decimated and even extermi-
nated by the incoming Europeans. Great and small "dependencies" have
been created, ranging from a major social section of the race, like India,
to diminutive tracts with few souls, like the islands of Guam or Yap.
Overlordships have been established like that of Great Britain in Egypt and

300

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 301

of France in Madagascar, more recently still of Italy in Abyssinia. Since
the World War the conscience of Christendom has adopted the policy of
"mandates" over backward peoples, which is at least a formal tribute to a
more human view of the rights and relations of mankind, as such.

In other cases, nations and peoples have been aroused by the impact of
European expansion into new careers in their own lives and in their rela-
tions to other peoples. Japan is the outstanding example. So com-
pletely did Japan respond to this arousing impact that in less than fifty
years after her first reaction she had entered upon a similar career of
expansion herself and had become a powerful factor in the changing of the
modern world.

One other method of impressing this expansion of Europe was estab-
lishing "spheres of influence" in areas of the world which might not be
incorporated in growing empires, nor yet subordinated into "protecto-
rates." The expanding powers sought to reach mutual agreements with
reference to these " spheres of influence " in territories nationally not to
be appropriated or disintegrated. The supreme example here is China,
where the " spheres of influence " procedure was most of all the cause of
the Boxer Uprising, in 1900, and of the injustices and handicaps under
which the Chinese have so tragically struggled in their effort to con-
struct a modern independent nation. It is quite true that in the case of
China, as of the other areas of arrested and retarded development, the
ambition for lives of modern culture was produced in reaction to this
expansion. New eras of social and national growth were induced by the
Western impact.

Singe Christendom at the opening of modern history was, mainly,
Europe it was also y racially white; and thus the expansion of Christen-
dom brought about white leadership, and, to a large extent, domination
of the world by the white races. This ministered to racial pride and
arrogance, as also it aroused racial resentment and bitterness when once
the coloured races came into full consciousness of the situation. It is
significant, although very generally overlooked, that the racial and colour
feature of this expansion was little in consciousness until the world was
already practically under the leadership and direction of the white races ;
and that race pride and ambition played, little part in bringing about the
condition. Resentments and ambition, based on race and colour, arose
mainly after the fact was accomplished.

Now, Christian missions constitute only one phase of this world-wide
movement of Christendom in the last four centuries. We have seen that
until the Missionary Society was called into existence, under the lead of
Carey, in modern times the missionary followed in the wake of the gen-
eral expansion, but did not lead it. From Carey onward the missionary
has continued to follow up the secular outreachings of the men and insti-
tutions of Christendom; but the missionary has done much more than
this. He has been an independent pioneer and has initiated his own
movements and has guided them by principles rising quite above the secu-
lar programmes. Christianity reverted to its primitive impulses and in-
spirations .and became again on its own account a world-reaching force.

302 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

It has no longer sought, merely or chiefly, to extend the Church with the
growth of Christendom, but has definitely sought to extend Christianity
regardless of the confines of Christendom. It has had a Gospel for all
men. In the advances of Christendom, Christianity found many of its
major openings, but it -no longer depended upon these. It plunged boldly
into the "dark corners" of the earth, claiming all men for sons of God
and proclaiming a Christ Who rose above all nationalities and cultures
and sent His followers to bring into the Kingdom of God subjects from
every tribe and tongue and kindred and nation. The growth of ^he mis-
sionary movement in this modern period has been possible because of the
growth of this super-national, super-Christendom conception. It has not
been an unbroken growth. It has met much opposition and more of stolid
indifference. It has had its periods of antagonism, within the ranks of Chris-
tendom and of the churches. It is experiencing at the present time one of
those recessions of interest very marked and not a little severe criticism.
Christianity is under the necessity of thinking itself into a clearer differ-
ential distinction from Christendom, and even of distinguishing essential
Christianity from its churches, in order that it may 'be true to its own
spirit, loyal to its own Lord, faithful to its own interest in humanity;
and in it all filled with its own Spirit of the Living God and His Christ.

MOTIVES AND METHODS IN EXPANSION Of CHRISTENDOM

The motives and objectives in the expansion of Christendom have been
different and mixed. Besides the spirit of adventure, the inherent and
unexplained urge for advance, we may define the urges that have led on
to this remarkable covering of the earth. Attitudes toward peoples affected
by the expansion method adopted in effecting the expansion and dealing
with the new territory and peoples have been determined in large measure
by the motive and objective in the particular contact and occupation being
made. We remember always that more than one motive will be operating
in a given moment, as also that at the same time two sets of motives may be
operating in two groups at the same time and place. Thus when we classify,
it must be with the understanding that there is overlapping, with varying
measures of co-operation, or antagonism, or separateness of action.

What stands out most powerfully in this period of expansion is the
seeking of territory. It has been an era of empire building, in . which
Spain and Portugal were succeeded by Holland, Denmark, Great Britain,
France, Germany, and then Japan, the United States, Italy. While the
United States is by its inner principles prohibited from seeking terri-
torial expansion and while it consistently professes to desire the land of
no other people, its history has been one of repeated and almost con-
tinuous expansions until it is surpassed in territorial growth in its cen-
tury and a half of national history only by Great Britain. The pleas of
"-manifest destiny" and "providential direction" cannot obviate the facts
of actual history, nor allay the resentments and fears awakened in other
nations by the facts. Empires are built by conquest, expropriation, sup-
pression, and are maintained by repression, subordination, domination of
the people in appropriated areas. 'That the econoimc welfare and, in

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 303

the long run, the cultural welfare of peoples are advanced by the over-
mastering powers may be true enough. Yet it is difficult at the time
for a subjugated 'people to see the beauties and accept the benefits of the
religion of the conquerors. Genuine Christian progress is not easy for the
missionary where Christendom enlarges its borders by forceful aggression.

There is, next, the seeking- after wealth, material goods and prosperity.
To this end the peoples of Christendom build up trade through commerce ;
support and maintain their commerce by diplomacy and by large com-
binations of capital; protect it by force of arms or threat of such force j
and exploit the weaker and more backward peoples in the interest of
the satisfaction, comfort and pride of those who carry on the economic
expansion. It may well enough be that the development of trade benefits
the exploited peoples, enriches their lives and in the large is for their
good. Yet, as a matter of fact, in the process gross injustices, grievous
wrongs and immeasurable sufferings have been inflicted. One needs only
to refer to the long struggle to overcome chattel and mercantile slavery;
then the tragic history of economic inequalities and subordination of the
proletariat; and the shameless disregard of the humanity of the peoples
of Africa and Brazil in the rubber trade of Belgians and British, merely
to cite outstanding examples. The part played by Christian missions in
mitigating; exposing and correcting these evils of the expansion of Christen-
dom deserves a measure of recognition not yet accorded.

A third aspect of expansion in our modern world has sought spiritual
values. Here we proceed by instruction, by inspiration by stimulating
comparisons, by cultural interchange. The work is carried on by agents
and agencies committed to idealism and with sympathetic efforts at human
understanding and helpfulness. If those who go On such errands repre-
sent Jesus Christ or His churches, we call them missionaries. If they
represent culture, education, some phase of general well-being, they may
be appointed and encouraged by some organization or may go self-
appointed. Commissions ^and committees have gone increasingly in recent
times for such purposes. Sometimes they are invited, sometimes uninvited.

REACTIONS TO THIS EXPANSION

In the course of these forms of ^expansion the reactions of the peoples
readied in the process have been varied and progressive. At first very
many were too ignorant to know, or too illiterate to understand, and
simply ignored the invasions of new forces or ideas. Many resented the
encroachments, while also 'many imitated the ways and works of the in-
vaders. Then we see the attitude which submits to the intrusion, appro-
priates, adopts and adapts what is brought. At length we reach the
stage where there is better understanding with assimilation, reciprocation,
sharing co-operation for the good of all.

The great business of Christianity in this period has been to carry the
Gospel of Christ and the institutions of religion. It has not been possible
nor always, or wholly, desirable to avoid association and interdependence
with political and economic expansion. Certainly there is dose connec-
tion with all truly cultural advance. Missionaries have builded wiser and

302 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

It has no longer sought, merely or chiefly, to extend the Church with the
growth of Christendom, but has definitely sought to extend Christianity
regardless of the confines of Christendom. It has had a Gospel for all
men. In the advances of Christendom, Christianity found many of its
major openings, but it -no longer depended upon these. It plunged boldly
into the "dark corners" of the earth, claiming all men for sons of God
and proclaiming a Christ Who rose above all nationalities and cultures
and sent His followers to bring into the Kingdom of God subjects from
every tribe and tongue and kindred and nation. The growth of ;the mis-
sionary movement in this modern period has been possible because of the
growth of this super-national, super-Christendom conception. It has not
been an unbroken growth. It has met much opposition and more of stolid
indifference. It has had its periods of antagonism, within the ranks of Chris-
tendom and of the churches. It is experiencing at the present time one of
these recessions of interest very marked and not a little severe criticism.
Christianity is under the necessity of thinking itself into a clearer differ-
ential distinction from Christendom, and even of distinguishing essential
Christianity from its churches, in order that it may 'be true to its own
spirit, loyal to its own Lord, faithful to its own interest in humanity;
and in it all filled with its own Spirit of the Living God and His Christ.

MOTIVES AND METHODS IN EXPANSION Of CHRISTENDOM

The motives and objectives in the expansion of Christendom have been
different and mixed. Besides the spirit of adventure, the inherent and
unexplained urge for advance, we may define the urges that have led on
to this remarkable covering of the earth. Attitudes toward peoples affected
by the expansion method adopted in effecting the expansion and dealing
with the new territory and peoples have been determined in large measure
by the motive and objective in the particular contact and occupation being
made. We remember always that more than one motive will be operating
in a given moment, as also that at the same time two sets of motives may be
operating in two groups at the same time and place. Thus when we classify,
it must be with the understanding that there is overlapping, with varying
measures of co-operation, or antagonism, or separateness of action.

What stands out most powerfully in this period of expansion is the
seeking of territory. It has been an era of empire building, in . which
Spain and Portugal were succeeded by Holland, Denmark, Great Britain,
France, Germany, and then Japan, the United States, Italy. While the
United States is by its inner principles prohibited from seeking terri-
torial expansion and while it consistently professes to desire the land of
no other people, its history has been one of repeated and almost con-
tinuous expansions until it is surpassed in territorial growth in its cen-
tury and a half of national history only by Great Britain. The pleas of
"-manifest destiny" and "providential direction" cannot obviate the facts
of actual history, nor allay the resentments and fears awakened in other
nations by the facts. Empires are built by conquest, expropriation, sup-
pression, and are maintained by repression, subordination, domination of
the people in appropriated areas. 'That the econoimc welfare and, Jn

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 303

the long run, the cultural welfare of peoples are advanced by the over-
mastering powers may be true enough. Yet it is difficult at the time
for a subjugated 'people to see the beauties and accept the benefits of the
religion of the conquerors. Genuine Christian progress is not easy for the
missionary where Christendom enlarges its borders by forceful aggression.

There is, next, the seeking- after wealth, material goods and prosperity.
To this end the peoples of Christendom build up trade through commerce ;
-support and maintain their commerce by diplomacy and by large com-
binations of capital; protect it by force of arms or threat of such force;
and exploit the weaker and more backward peoples in the interest of
the satisfaction, comfort and pride of those who carry on the economic
expansion. It may well enough be that the development of trade benefits
the exploited peoples, enriches their lives and in the large is for their
good. Yet, as a matter of fact, in the process gross injustices, grievous
wrongs and immeasurable sufferings have been inflicted. One needs only
to refer to the long struggle to overcome chattel and mercantile slavery;
then the tragic history of economic inequalities and subordination of the
proletariat; and the shameless disregard of the humanity of the peoples
of Africa and Brazil in the rubber trade of Belgians and British, merely
to cite outstanding examples. The part played by Christian missions in
mitigating; exposing and correcting these evils of the expansion of Christen-
dom deserves a measure of recognition not yet accorded.

A third aspect of expansion in our modern world has sought spiritual
values. Here we proceed by instruction, by inspiration by stimulating
comparisons, by cultural interchange. The work is carried on by agents
and agencies committed to idealism and with sympathetic efforts at human
understanding and helpfulness. If those who go on such errands repre-
sent Jesus Christ or His churches, we call them missionaries. If they
represent culture, education, some phase of general well-being, they may
be appointed and encouraged by some organization or may go self-
appointed. Commissions ^and committees have gone increasingly in recent
times for such purposes. Sometimes they are invited, sometimes uninvited.

REACTIONS TO THIS EXPANSION

In the course of these forms of ^expansion the reactions of the peoples
readied in the process have been varied and progressive. At first very
many were too ignorant to know, or too illiterate to understand, and
simply ignored the invasions of new forces or ideas. Many resented the
encroachments, while also 'many imitated the ways and works of the in-
vaders. Then we see the attitude which submits to the intrusion, appro-
priates, adopts and adapts what is brought. At length we reach the
stage where there is better understanding with assimilation, reciprocation,
sharing co-operation for the good of all.

The great business of Christianity in this period has been to carry the
Gospel of Christ and the institutions of religion. It has not been possible
nor always, or wholly, desirable to avoid association and interdependence
with political and economic expansion. Certainly there is dose connec-
tion with all truly cultural advance. Missionaries have builded wiser and

304 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

more widely than they planned, as a rule. New life produced new forms
of life, in new environments. All values were enhanced by their work.
The missionaries modified, interpreted and enriched the values of secular
advance, while they restrained, mitigated, rebuked and corrected many of
its evils. They often found themselves embarrassed by the unchristian
conduct of secular movements and not infrequently compelled to expose
and oppose politicians and traders.

At length the situation is being reached when distinction is drawn in
all parts of the world between a Christian and a man from a " Christian
country." Christendom and Christianity are no longer synonymous
terms for intelligent and thoughtful people in any part of the world.
Jesus drew the distinction very sharply for His apostles. "The world"
would hate His disciples because they were "not of the world," just as
He was Himself not of the world. Christians were for the earliest mis-
sion areas people "called out" of the world to be "delivered from this
present evil age." Modern missions have been until now too much a
matter of geography and too much a matter of nationality. . A man was
a missionary only if he went from "a Christian country" to a "heathen
land," and from his own nation and racial group to a "foreign land" and
a people of a "strange tongue." There were advantages in this way of
thinking. It sent missionaries out to begin Christianity at least to pro-
claim it over the whole earth. We are at length coming to see that there
are no longer any non-Christian lands. For one reason, there are now
Christians in every land, very few in some lands and _ all too few in every
land; yet there is no land and hardly any section now wholly without its
followers of Jesus Christ. Geographically, the Gospel has gone to the
ends of the earth.

But there is another reason why there are no longer for thoughtful men
any non-Christian lands. It is because there are no " Christian lands " to
form a contrast sufficient to justify the "non-Christian" classification. It
is only a question of degrees. Even where practically all the population
is, by the ideas and methods prevailing-, in the Church, there are very
many who are not Christians. Furthermore, there are so many aspects
of our life in all lands, so much of our institutional life and corporate
activity not guided or controlled by the ideals of Christ and the motives
of His Spirit that it is quite improper to speak of any country, as Chris-
tian. Only in the latter part of our period have nations, as such, begun
to recognize that Christian principles must be applied in international re-
lationships and that diplomacy must be carried on under the eyes of the
God and Saviour of all peoples. In the conduct of its own internal affairs
in every nation, until very recently, the protection of property and the
provision for material prosperity have been the foci of all legislation and
administration. Christians and non-Christians are not to be grouped and
distinguished by nations. The distinction is based on experience and runs
through all lands and all groups.

THE GR^AT ACHIEVEMENT 01? CHRISTIANITY IN THE MODERN WORI,D

The greatest single phase of achievement of Christian missions in this

A SVRVZY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 305

modern evangelical world campaign has been the changing of emphases
and the revision of , the ways of thinking about nations and government,
races and the human race. Christ's reverence for personality, His prin-
ciples of self-denial, stewardship, redemption, brotherhood, righteousness
have more and more come into operation and into wider recognition until
they are clamouring for concrete expression in the life of mankind.
Christianity has produced and made operative in the modern world the
ideas of democracy, independence, autonomy, self-determination, interna-
tional justice, racial unity, human brotherhood. In some real measure the
group contacts among men have been, and are being. Christianized. The
worst exploitations in the extension of empire and trade have been miti-
gated if not abolished, or at least shamed into concealment and denial. It
is a long way from the conquests of a Cortez and the friendly diplomacy
of a Morrow in Mexico. There is a public opinion of mankind that
shames into abandonment the predatory schemes and inhumanities of any
nation or group. This work is far from complete, but it is in evidence
and is growing. The task of Christianity has become social rather than
geographical. It is no longer a matter of going from one race or culture
to another. By the same token it is a matter of vital experience and
righteous conduct, and not of a formal profession and church membership.

Here the Christian forces must not forget or be drawn aside from the
methods of Jesus. Men must be reborn into appreciation of and devotion
to these human and spiritual values; and the Gospel of the Kingdom of
God as the social ideal and of regeneration and righteousness as the
means must remain the specific duty of the Christians and of the churches,
which are the agencies through which Christians devote themselves in
working for. the Kingdom of heaven among men. Christianity reconstructs
life; the churches maintain Christianity; the missionary movement car-
ries Christianity into all the world and plants its churches among all
people.

Christendom has carried its inspirations and its benefits to all the world.
It has carried also the evils of human nature and human society which
it had failed to overcome in Europe and America. It has carried its own
problems into the midst of age-long problems in other lands, and has
thereby created new problems for itself and. for all the rest of the world.
All along it has carried the seed of the solution of its problems not their
complete solution in any proximate period, to be sure; for problems of
growing life are never solved except in the sense that they are so Dandled
as to continue the process of solving and creating problems. The problems
are modified with each measure of their solution. They come better to be
understood, although ever more complex.

The gain that has been achieved is that the major problems of any
people and in any part of the world are made now to appear as world
problems calling 'for the co-operation of leadership of all peoples in their
progressive solution; and the further gain that Christianity can now offer
solutions on a scale never before possible. For in all frankness it must
be recognized that Christianity is the standard for the world's ideals
today. The moral and ethical judgments of men throughout the world

304 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

more widely than they planned, as a rule. New life produced new forms
of life, in new environments. All values were enhanced by their work.
The missionaries modified, interpreted and enriched the values of secular
advance, while they restrained, mitigated, rebuked and corrected many of
its evils. They often found themselves embarrassed by the unchristian
conduct of secular movements and not infrequently compelled to expose
and oppose politicians and traders.

At length the situation is being reached when distinction is drawn in
all parts of the world between a Christian and a man from a " Christian
country." Christendom and Christianity are no longer synonymous
terms for intelligent and thoughtful people in any part of the world.
Jesus drew the distinction very sharply for His apostles. "The world"
would hate His disciples because they were "not of the world," just as
He was Himself not of the world. Christians were for the earliest mis-
sion areas people " called out " of the world to be " delivered from this
present evil age." Modern missions have been until now too much a
matter of geography and too much a matter of nationality. . A man was
a missionary only if he went from "a Christian country" to a "heathen
land," and from his own nation and racial group to a "foreign land" and
a people of a "strange tongue." There were advantages in this way of
thinking. It sent missionaries out to begin Christianity at least to pro-
claim it over the whole earth. We are at length coming to see that there
are no longer any non-Christian lands. For one reason, there are now
Christians in every land, very few in some lands and _ all too few in every
land; yet there is no land and hardly any section now wholly without its
followers of Jesus Christ. Geographically, the Gospel has gone to the
ends of the earth.

But there is another reason why there are no longer for thoughtful men
any non-Christian lands. It is because there are no " Christian lands " to
form a contrast sufficient to justify the "non-Christian" classification. It
is only a question of degrees. Even where practically all the population
is, by the ideas and methods prevailing, in the Church, there are very
many who are not Christians. Furthermore, there are so many aspects
of our life in all lands, so much of our institutional life and corporate
activity not guided or controlled by the ideals of Christ and the motives
of His Spirit that it is quite improper to speak of any country, as Chris-
tian. Only in the latter part of our period have nations, as such, begun
to recognize that Christian principles must be applied in international re-
lationships and that diplomacy must be carried on under the eyes of the
God and Saviour of all peoples. In the conduct of its own internal affairs
in every nation, until very recently, the protection of property and the
provision for material prosperity have been the foci of all legislation and
administration. Christians and non-Christians are not to be grouped and
distinguished by nations. The distinction is based on experience and runs
through all lands and all groups.

THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE MODERN WORI,D
The greatest single phase of achievement of Christian missions in this

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 305

modern evangelical world campaign has been the changing of emphases
and the revision of , the ways of thinking about nations and government,
races and the human race. Christ's reverence for personality, His prin-
ciples of self-denial, stewardship, redemption, brotherhood, righteousness
have more and more come into operation and into wider recognition until
they are clamouring for concrete expression in the life of mankind.
Christianity has produced" and made operative in the modern world the
ideas of democracy, independence, autonomy, self-determination, interna-
tional justice, racial unity, human brotherhood. In some real measure the
group contacts among men have been, and are being, Christianized. The
worst exploitations in the extension of empire and trade have been miti-
gated if not abolished, or at least shamed into concealment and denial. It
is a long way from the conquests of a Cortez and the friendly diplomacy
of a Morrow in Mexico. There is a public opinion of mankind that
shames into abandonment the predatory schemes and inhumanities of any
nation or group. This work is far from complete, but it is in evidence
and is growing. The task of Christianity has become social rather than
geographical. It is no longer a matter of going from one race or culture
to another. By the same token it is a matter of vital experience and
righteous conduct, and not of a formal profession and church membership.

Here the Christian forces must not forget or be drawn aside from the
methods of Jesus. Men must be reborn into appreciation of and devotion
to these human and spiritual values; and the Gospel of the Kingdom of
God as the social ideal and of regeneration and righteousness as the
means must remain the specific duty of the Christians and of the churches,
which are the agencies through which Christians devote themselves in
working for. the Kingdom of heaven among men. Christianity reconstructs
life; the churches maintain Christianity; the missionary movement car-
ries Christianity into all the world and plants its churches among all
people.

Christendom has carried its inspirations and its benefits to all the world.
It has carried also the evils of human nature and human society which
it had failed to overcome in Europe and America. It has carried its own
problems into the midst of age-long problems in other lands, and has
thereby created new problems for itself and- for all the rest of the world.
All along it has carried the seed of the solution of its problems not their
complete solution in any proximate period, to be sure; for problems of
growing life are never solved except in the sense that they are so handled
as to continue the process' of solving and creating problems. The problems
are modified with each measure of their solution. They come better to be
understood, although ever more complex.

The gain that has been achieved is that the major problems of any
people and in any part of the world are made now to appear as world
problems calling 'for the co-operation of leadership of all peoples in their
progressive solution; and the further gain that Christianity can now offer
solutions on a scale never before possible. For in all frankness it must
be recognized that Christianity is the standard for the world's ideals
today. The moral and ethical judgments of men throughout the world

306 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the ideals which Hia
Gospel has brought into humanity. Even with all its failures and sins,
the Church has been the bearer of the Christ. He has shone through
all the haze of frailty, imperfection and misrepresentation of His fol-
lowing, so that, however dimly His glory and beauty appear, He still
glows as the star of hope and the light of judgment for mankind. If the
world turns in judgment upon the organized Church and upon the ways
of Christendom, it is at the bar of the Christ of the Church and of
Christendom, and by His laws that they are accused. He alone is the
arbiter. To be Christlike is the last word in every land. His words
are the standard. By them all men judge others and plead with them-
selves. Thus much an expanding Gospel has done in modern times, in
spite of all the handicaps imposed by a Christendom still weighted . with
heavy depravity and unyielding selfishness.

Even in the things of national life the awakened nations set before
themselves eagerly to strive for what the "Christian nations" have ob-
tained and have set before them as next goals. Nor should we forget
though all too many of us and too often do forget that these peoples of
Christendom who lead the world's modern advance were but untaught sav-
ages when already the ancient Asia was stocked with empires of culture
and long history, the same peoples that now emulate the newer West and
follow its lead. Christianity has caused the peoples it gripped only par-
tially and inspired inadequately to outrun the rest of the world and place
Christendom in the confessed leadership of the race.

CHANGES WROUGHT WITHIN CHRISTIANITY BY ITS MISSIONS

Not without extensive changes within has Christianity sent her sons
and daughters into the lands of the earth to be prophets of God, heralds
of Christ, planters of churches, and bearers of" a new interpretation of
life. In her theology, her ecclesiology, her eschatology Christianity has
wrought and experienced remarkable modification as she has heard and
heeded the voice of her God; as she has lifted up her eyes with her
Christ to look upon the multitudinous nations as fields white unto the
harvest; as she has learned to sympathize with the worshipping soul of
humanity in vain ways lifting lame hands upward to feel after God; as
she has come to share the missionary call and passion of Paul and made it
her "ambition so to preach Christ where he was not known, to go forth
among men as a liturgy-leader in behalf of Jesus Christ, ministering the
Gospel of God so that the religious offering of the heathen might be
made acceptable because sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Cf. Rom.
15:13-21). All favouritism in God progressively passes out of the minds
of men who are following a universal Christ to interpret Him as they
find Him striving for expression in the religious yearnings of men the
world over. Exclusive election cannot hold place in the religion of men
who have found themselves chosen of God to be the bearers of a call to
all men. Their election has come to be that to service in stewardship of
the Gospel so that Christ's redemption may become ever more inclusive.
Christianity ceases to be thought of as a limited stream flowing through

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 307

a hopeless morass of humanity on to a land of glory lying beyond this
degenerate world, for missions interpret the Gospel as an ever-widening'
stream of life renewing the world. Creeds and dogmas become plastic
with conformity to the unfolding of their meaning in new phases and larger
expression.

When once men learn that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself and committing unto those who experience the reconciliation the
ministry of reconciliation unto all men, then many ideas and forms lose
meaning or take on new meaning. There is a new attitude toward Chris-
tians of other communions following the same commission and engaging
in the same tasks. Christian missions in modern times have been recasting
the forms of Christianity and are working -still at a task far from com-
plete. It is not possible here to trace, or even outline, the changes in out-
look, emphasis, attitude and structural organization which have come about
in the last hundred years and which have been produced, more than any-
thing else, by Christianity's entering actively upon a career of world-wide
evangelism and^by the experiences in the process of becoming actually a
world religion. ~

CONTRIBUTION OF MISSIONS ?0 CUI/TUKB'

No adequate appraisement of the missionary history of our age can
ignore its contribution .to human culture. To begin with, Christian mis-
sions have dbne much in the way of uncovering the surface of the world
and introducing its peoples to one another. Many groups of islands are
known to mankind generally only or chiefly as arenas of heroic missionary
labours and martyrdoms. The secrets of the "hermit nations" have been
first penetrated by the men and women who went in the name of Christ to
bring the light of God into these closed areas. "Darkest Africa" was
brought into the light of observation in great measure by men inspired
by the missionary motive. It was before the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury that Krapf and Rebmann were pioneering in the region of Central
Africa's great lakes and mountains with a view to laying out an "Apostle-
strasse" from east to west as an highway for the Gospel of Redemption.
Moffatt was only less an explorer than a missionary; and his son-in-law,
Livingstone, became the most noted 1 * of all Africa's explorers because as a
missionary he found it necessary first to uncover the vast need to the gaze
of Christendom. For him "the end of exploration was always the begin-
ning of the missionary enterprise." Henry M. Stanley went first to seek
Livingstone. He was led by that great Christian to share the call of
God to the neglected and' despised races and made the Christian motive
large in his own subsequent enlightening explorations. Stanley's chal-
lenge to the missionary societies sent the British into Uganda. The
Landor brothers and Du Chaillu were also actuated by the call of the
missionary spirit. These are outstanding. Besides them a great number
of men and women as well are responsible for the first incursions into
limited areas, which they entered in search of neglected men and women
that these might come to know their inheritance from God in Christ. How
much geography, ethnography, ethnology, philology, anthropology owe to

306 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the ideals which
Gospel has brought into humanity. Even with all its failures and sins,
the Church has been the bearer of the Christ. He has shone through
all the haze of frailty, imperfection and misrepresentation of His fol-
lowing, so that, however dimly His glory and beauty appear, He still
glows as the star of hope and the light of judgment for mankind. If the
world turns in judgment upon the organized Church and upon the ways
of Christendom, it is at the bar of the Christ of the Church and of
Christendom, and by His laws that they are accused. He alone is the
arbiter. To be Christlike is the last word in every land. His words
are the standard. By them all men judge others and plead with them-
selves. Thus much an expanding Gospel has done in modern times, in
spite of all the handicaps imposed by a Christendom still weighted . with
heavy depravity and unyielding selfishness.

Even in the things of national life the awakened nations set before
themselves eagerly to strive for what the "Christian nations" have ob-
tained and have set before them as next goals. Nor should we forget
though all too many of us and too often do forget that these peoples of
Christendom who lead the world's modern advance were but untaught sav-
ages when already the ancient Asia was stocked with empires of culture
and long history, the same peoples that now emulate the newer West and
follow its lead. Christianity has caused the peoples it gripped only par-
tially and inspired inadequately to outrun the rest of the world and place
Christendom in the confessed leadership of the race.

CHANGES WROUGHT WITHIN CHRISTIANITY BY ITS MISSIONS

Not without extensive changes within has Christianity sent her sons
and daughters into the lands of the earth to be prophets of God, heralds
of Christ, planters of churches, and bearers of" a new interpretation of
life. In her theology, her ecclesiology, her eschatology Christianity has
wrought and experienced remarkable modification as she has heard and
heeded the voice of her God; as she has lifted up her eyes with her
Christ to look upon the multitudinous nations as fields white unto the
harvest; as she has learned to sympathize with the worshipping soul of
humanity in vain ways lifting lame hands upward to feel after God; as
she has come to share the missionary call and passion of Paul and made it
her "ambition so to preach Christ where he was not known, to go forth
among men as a liturgy-leader in behalf of Jesus Christ, ministering the
Gospel of God so that the religious offering of the heathen might be
made acceptable because sanctified by the Holy Spirit" (Cf. Rom.
15:13-21). All favouritism in God progressively passes out of the minds
of men who are following a universal Christ to interpret Him as they
find Him striving for expression in the religious yearnings of men the
world over. Exclusive election cannot hold place in the religion of men
who have found themselves chosen of God to be the bearers of a call to
all men. Their election has come to be that to service in stewardship of
the Gospel so that Christ's redemption may become ever more inclusive.
Christianity ceases to be thought of as a limited stream flowing through

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 307

a hopeless morass of humanity on to a land of glory lying beyond this
degenerate world, for missions interpret the Gospel as an ever-widening'
stream of life renewing the world. Creeds and dogmas become plastic
with conformity to the unfolding of their meaning in new phases and larger
expression.

.When once men learn that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself and committing unto those who experience the reconciliation the
ministry of reconciliation unto all men, then many ideas and forms lose
meaning or take on new meaning. There is a new attitude toward Chris-
tians of other communions following the same commission and engaging
in the same tasks. Christian missions in modern times have been recasting
the forms of Christianity and are working- -still at a task far from com-
plete. It is not possible here to trace, or even outline, the changes in out-
look, emphasis, attitude and structural organization which have come about
in the last hundred years and which have been produced, more than any-
thing else, by Christianity's entering actively upon a career of world-wide
evangelism and^by the experiences in the process of becoming actually a
world religion. -

CONTRIBUTION Off MISSIONS TO

No adequate appraisement of the missionary history of our age can
ignore its contribution .to human culture. To begin with, Christian mis-
sions have dbne much in the way of uncovering the surface of the world
and introducing its peoples to one another. Many groups of islands are
known to mankind generally only or chiefly as arenas of heroic missionary
labours and martyrdoms. The secrets of the "hermit nations" have been
first penetrated by the men and women who went in the name of Christ to
bring the light of God into these closed areas. "Darkest Africa" was
brought into the light of observation in great measure by men inspired
by the missionary motive. It was before the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury that Krapf and Rebmann were pioneering in the region of Central
Africa's great lakes and mountains with a view to laying out an "Appstle-
strasse" from east to west as an highway for the Gospel of Redemption.
Moffatt was only less, an explorer than a missionary; and his son-in-law,
Livingstone, became the most noted^of all Africa's explorers because as a
missionary he found it necessary first to uncover the vast need to the gaze
of Christendom. For him "the end of exploration was always the begin-
ning of the missionary enterprise." Henry M. Stanley went first to seek
Livingstone. He was led by that great Christian to share the call of
God to the neglected and' despised races and made the Christian motive
large in his own subsequent enlightening explorations. Stanley's chal-
lenge to the missionary societies sent the British into Uganda. The
Landor brothers and Du Chaillu were also actuated by the call of the
missionary spirit. These are outstanding. Besides them a great number
of men and women as well are responsible for the first incursions into
limited areas, which they entered in search of neglected men and women
that these might come to know their inheritance from God in Christ. How
much geography, ethnography, ethnology, philology, anthropology owe to

308 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

missionaries cannot be reckoned or estimated. Certain it is that in all these
fields they have been pioneers and have contributed much data of the sort
that it cost most to get at.

"In overwhelming proportion it has been the missionaries and not the
soldiers and governors, it has been the missionaries and not the mer-
chants and civil servants, with whom has lain the initiative in 'almost all
the civilizing work to which we have referred. It has been the mission-
ary doctors, not medical men as such, who have opened the hospitals and
laid the foundation of medical instruction. Not professional students of
language as such, but missionaries, have done by far the largest part of
the work of reducing the new languages to writing, of translating the
Bible, of producing other books and creating literature. Not professional
educators in the first instance, but missionary teachers, have been founders
of schools and colleges, inaugurators of the work of the press. Not in-
dustrial innovators and social reformers as such, but missionaries, have
been the first to struggle with the poverty of the converts and their
exclusion from castes and trades, with the status of women, with the
helplessness of orphans, with conditions of plague and famine. Others
have followed in their steps, but the missionary has usually blazed the
way. Yet the missionary has always regarded these matters, however
valuable in themselves, as merely subordinate to his main end. He has
always considered them side issues and by-products of his main endeav-
ours. He has considered these works as but the fringe and circumfer-
ence of his task. His central task, and in the early stages you might
almost say his exclusive task, was the preaching of the Gcfspel of God
as revealed in Christ to the souls of men. The later representatives . of
the mission cause have indeed come to regard these secondary aims as
more intimately connected with the essential purpose than the earliest
of the missionaries had felt them to be. We, in our generation, feel more
strongly than did the men of a century ago the unity of man's life, the
impossibility of touching it effectually if we tcftich it at one point only.
Yet the most modern missionary, with all of his sympathy with humani-
tarian ends, does not regard these as his main ends. He would still say
that he held himself to be primarily a minister of religion, that he sodght
converts to a faith, that he wished to build up a church and to establish a
religious community" (West and East, Moore, pp. 323, 324).

All the historical and anthropological sciences are heavy debtors both
to the missionary idea in operation in the course of history and to numer-
ous individual missionaries who have contributed much material and have
initiated lines of research and done much in the way of reflection upon
and classification of facts. Missionaries have been initiators and pioneers
in all these lines. As a rule, they have properly and nece'ssarily left to
others the development of the sciences of religion, anthropology and his-
tory, while they gave themselves chiefly to the work of practical religion
in their missionary activities. But there are on the missionary rosters
notable names of contributors to culture. Legge, Williams, Richard, Hep-
burn, Martin, Griffis, Gulick, Verbeck, Warneck, Livingstone, Judson are
a few of a numerous list of leaders in the enlargement of knowledge and

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 309

understanding, whose primary work was preaching the Gospel and building
the Kingdom of heaven.

The better understanding of the religions of mankind and the changed
attitude toward them within Christendom is one of the most significant
products of the missionary insight and research. The study of the ethnic
religions of India, China and Japan on the part of the adherents of these
religions has been brought about by sympathetic and cultured missionary
students. To the missionary labour, and the labours of others inspired by
them, is due the editing, publishing and interpreting of the literatures of
the world's religions. Until it was awakened by the missionaries, either
among the scholars of Christendom or in the devotees of the non-Christian
faiths, , there was practically no scientific interest in these literatures. A
great mine of human history and psychology has been opened and is yield-
ing invaluable results. The -range and methods of human culture for all
the major peoples has been radically phanged, primarily as a result of this
missionary movement.

One needs only the most casual knowledge of the changes hi educational
ideal and method, in the economic and social structure of Japan, China,
India and other parts of Asia and Africa, to feel how tremendously the
expansion of Christendom has affected the human race. The missionary
activities and agents have been the chief beneficent factor in this change.
The changes complicate and enlarge the task and the problem of Chris-
tianity in the world. They also encourage the putting forth of the energy
requisite to the carrying on of so great a work.

SUCCESS OF MODERN MISSIONS

7

Christian missions may be appraised in part by reckoning the numerical
and tangible advances which mark the progress from Carey to our own
day. To begin with, Christian churches have been made a definite factor
in half of the world, from which a hundred and fifty years ago they were
absent, or were an insignificant feature, not an influential factor. The
missionary force has grown from a few score to some thirty thousand;
the membership of the churches from a few thousand, as the result of the
Protestant work prior to Carey, to a total of two and a half millions, with
"adherents" bringing the number to approximately eight millions.

William Carey was the first modern missionary. His methods consti-
tuted a strategy of missions which is now approved by the science of
missions, which is one of the achievements of the movement. It is a
growing science. The successes must modify the methods because they
produce new conditions. In all human movements there must be learning
by experimentation. The trial and error method is always in evidence.
The basal lines of a missionary science lie plainly in the nature of the
undertaking and are to be seen in the work and programme of Jesus, and
in the strategy and progress of Paul.

The first objective and the leading motive in missionary work is the
saving of the souls of men. It is frequently, but erroneously, said that
this was almost the only idea of the missionaries of the first decades of
the modern period. That men have in them the eternal values of per-

308 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

missionaries cannot be reckoned or estimated. Certain it is that in all these
fields they have been pioneers and have contributed much data of the sort
that it cost most to get at.

"In overwhelming proportion it has been the missionaries and not the
soldiers and governors, it has been the missionaries and not the mer-
chants and civil servants, with whom has lain the initiative in 'almost all
the civilizing work to which we have referred. It has been the mission-
ary doctors, not medical men as such, who have opened the hospitals and
laid the foundation of medical instruction. Not professional students of
language as such, but missionaries, have done by far the largest part of
the work of reducing the new languages to writing, of translating the
Bible, of producing other books and creating literature. Not professional
educators in the first instance, but missionary teachers, have been founders
of schools and colleges, inaugurators of the work of the press. Not in-
dustrial innovators and social reformers as such, but missionaries, have
been the first to struggle with the poverty of the converts and their
exclusion from castes and trades, with the status of women, with the
helplessness of orphans, with conditions of plague and famine. Others
have followed in their steps, but the missionary has usually blazed the
way. Yet the missionary has always regarded these matters, however
valuable in themselves, as merely subordinate to his main end. He has
always considered them side issues and by-products of his main endeav-
ours. He has considered these works as but the fringe and circumfer-
ence of his task. His central task, and in the early stages you might
almost say his exclusive task, was the preaching of the Gcfspel of God
as revealed in Christ to the souls of men. The later representatives . of
the mission cause have indeed come to regard these secondary aims as
more intimately connected with the essential purpose than the earliest
of the missionaries had felt them to be. We, in our generation, feel more
strongly than did the men of a century ago the unity of man's life, the
impossibility of touching it effectually if we tcfuch it at one point only.
Yet the most modern missionary, with all of his sympathy with humani-
tarian ends, does not regard these as his main ends. He would still say
that he held himself to be primarily a minister of religion, that he sodght
converts to a faith, that he wished to build up a church and to establish a
religious community" (West and East, Moore, pp. 323, 324).

All the historical and anthropological sciences are heavy debtors both
to the missionary idea in operation in the course of history and to numer-
ous individual missionaries who have contributed much material and have
initiated lines of research and done much in the way of reflection upon
and classification of facts. Missionaries have been initiators and pioneers
in all these lines. As a rule, they have properly and necessarily left to
others the development of the sciences of religion, anthropology and his-
tory, while they gave themselves chiefly to the work of practical religion
in their missionary activities. But there are on the missionary rosters
notable names of contributors to culture. Legge, Williams, Richard, Hep-
burn, Martin, Griffis, Gulick, Verbeck, Warneck, Livingstone, Judson are
a few of a numerous list of leaders in the enlargement of knowledge and

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 309

understanding, whose primary work was preaching the Gospel and building
the Kingdom of heaven.

The better understanding of the religions of mankind and the changed
attitude toward them within Christendom is one of the most significant
products of the missionary insight and research. The study of the ethnic
religions of India, China and Japan on the part of the adherents of these
religions has been brought about by sympathetic and cultured missionary
students. To the missionary labour, and the labours of others inspired by
them, is due the editing, publishing and interpreting of the literatures of
the world's religions. Until it was awakened by the missionaries, either
among the schola'rs of Christendom or in the devotees of the non-Christian
faiths, there was practically no scientific interest in these literatures. A
great mine of human history and psychology has been opened and is yield-
ing invaluable results. The -range and methods of human culture for all
the major peoples has been radically changed, primarily as a result of this
missionary movement.

One needs only the most casual knowledge of the changes in educational
ideal and method, in the economic and social structure of Japan, China,
India and other parts of Asia and Africa, to feel how tremendously the
expansion' of Christendom has affected the human race. The missionary
activities and agents have been the chief beneficent factor in this change.
The changes complicate and enlarge the task and the problem of Chris-
tianity in the world. They also encourage the putting forth of the energy
requisite to the carrying on of so great a work.

SUCCESS OF MODERN MISSIONS

Christian missions may be appraised hi part by reckoning the numerical
and tangible advances which mark the progress from Carey to our own
day. To begin with, Christian churches have been made a definite factor
in half of the world, from which a hundred and fifty years ago they were
absent, or were an insignificant feature, not an influential factor. The
missionary force has grown from a few score to some thirty thousand;
the membership of the churches from a few thousand, as the result of the
Protestant work prior to Carey, to ^ total of two and a half millions, with
"adherents" bringing the number to approximately eight millions.

William Carey was the first modern missionary. His methods consti-
tuted a strategy of missions which is now approved by the science of
missions, which is one of the achievements of the movement. It is a
growing science. The successes must modify the methods because they
produce new conditions. In all human movements there must be learning
by experimentation. The trial and error method is always in evidence.
The basal lines of a missionary science lie plainly in the nature of the
undertaking and are to be seen in the work and programme of Jesus, and
in the strategy and progress of Paul.

The first objective and the leading motive in missionary work is the
saving of the souls of men. It is frequently, but erroneously, said that
this was almost the only idea of the missionaries of the first decades of
the modern period. That men have in them the eternal values of per-

310 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

sonality to be saved and brought to realization only through the grace of
God working through Christ and His Holy Spirit is the primary assumption
of the Christian Gospel. The Christ "came to seek and to save that
which was lost," and His disciples go on the same mission. But this
must not be conceived narrowly, for His guiding and constructive aim was
to introduce and establish the Kingdom of God. Besides the objective of
saving individuals as many as possible other objectives appear in the
course of the work. There is the effort of the church the denomination
to extend itself, reproduce itself, in other lands. That this would be the
result was largely assumed at first, and without any great reflection or
planning. What other method would a mission pursue? The denomina-
tions were taking themselves quite seriously when the modern movement
began. The denominations had grown up under conviction, and continued
in the belief that essential and complete Christianity required their par-
ticular expression of the religion of the Lord Jesus and their witness to it.
There was then little of the more recent sense of the loss, the incongruity,
the shame of a divided Christianity.

The aim. was from the start to " plant Christianity " in the lands where
it was not. What this meant could not be foreseen in detail. Much energy
of thought and conference in councils have been devoted to this question
without yet reaching any final definition. For the first hundred years the
question did not arise when this undertaking of planting Christianity in
any land might be thought of as completed. In the last thirty years it has
arisen and has for some become acute. About the middle of the nineteenth
century, Dr. W. N. Cust stated the objective of Christian missions as
being the production in the missionary lands of self-supporting, self-
governing, self-propagating churches. The phrase caught the imagination
of the missionary world and has been authoritative and inspiring and un-
questioned until within recent years, when conditions are calling for re-
thinking it. Just what is a church in this definition of the objective?
When has it become self-supporting, self-governing, self -propagating ? Who
is to determine when this is accomplished? The authorities of the sending
church? The missionaries who have produced the church? The church
itself in the mission field? Do we mean by the church the congregation
of believers in a given location, so that the goal is reached by stages and
progressively, unit after unit? Or do we mean the denomination as repro-
duced from the home base or the mission field, so that the Presbyterian
Church in Korea might come to the goal while the Methodist Church in
Korea was still a dependent a missionary church? Do we mean the
whole body of Christians in a given location, so that city by city the goal
shall be reached? Do we mean all the communicant Evangelical Christians
in a country, so that for even so extensive a country as China the one
church shall come as a unit to this goal ?

Then there are a lot of questions growing out of the three terms of
the definition. How shall it be determined when a church is self-supporting ?
How much is involved in this? Who is to determine when it is capable
of self-government? Who shall govern it until then? and who transmit
the right of self-government? What is the standard by which to test self-

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 311

propagation? In what order shall the three Ideals be sought and required
by the creating and directing mission? It was long assumed, and upon
occasion asserted, that a church was not to be regarded as capable of
self-government until it was self-supporting. The first expression of
Christianity is witnessing, and the first mark of a church would properly
be propagation. To that it should be encouraged by the mission. Its
right and duty of self-direction would be far more readily recognized if we
trusted the Holy Spirit as did the missionaries in the first days of Chris-
tianity. Self-support might well be the last of the three characteristics to
be attained. All these matters belong to the problem of what has come to
be called "the indigenous church." This has come to be one definite
objective of the missionary enterprise. It constitutes the major question
in present-day missionary strategy.

Social reconstruction is a. by-product and a legitimate indirect objective.
There are "social aspects of foreign missions" which cannot be over-
looked. Thirty years ago, the late Dr. J. S. Dennis set out in three great
volumes the outline story of Christianity and Social Progress. Other vol-
umes have taken account of this, and it cannot be overlooked. A part of the
science of missions seeks to determine the place of this objective in the pro-
grammes of the work. The ultimate hope is "making the world Christian"
" a new heaven and -a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."

Missionary strategy has had three- methods: evangelism, healing, edu-
cation. Each of these has had a growing history, and has called for
thoughtful statesmanship. The interrelation of the three is obvious. The
detailed interrelations and interactions are complex and varied. In evan-
gelism much had to be learned about approach, the place of natives in the
organized work of evangelism, and the terms and conditions of receiving
converts. Mass conversions .have produced serious problems in certain
sections of India and Africa.

The missionary had to be a healer. The sciences of medicine, sanita-
tion, surgery, dentistry, all the arts of personal and social hygiene were
practically unknown in two-thirds of the world a hundred and fifty years
ago. Christian missions introduced them. They were able to carry on
these arts in only a limited way and with modest equipment.^ They led
the way which was followed by personal initiative on the part of natives
in all lands ; by governments ; and by benevolent organizations not directly
connected with the missions. Outstanding among benevolent agencies for
the scientific hygienic development of backward peoples is the General
Medical Board, which is making a stupendous contribution to the physical
well-being of a large part of the human race. But for the example and
inspiration of medical missions, the Rockefeller Board would never have
entered upon its noble undertaking. In what lands and locations to con-
duct medical missions; what proportion of available funds to give to other
phases of the work; how to relate this to the work of evangelism; what
relations shall be maintained with independent and government medical
efforts these are problems for the missionary strategists, and they change
with the growing advance of what the missionary began.

Education is a vital part of missionary strategy, and introduces many

3io THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

sonality to be saved and brought to realization only through the grace of
God working through Christ and His Holy Spirit is the primary assumption
of the Christian Gospel. The Christ "came to seek and to save that
which was lost," and His disciples go on the same mission. But this
must not be conceived narrowly, for His guiding and constructive aim was
to introduce and establish the Kingdom of God. Besides the objective of
saving individuals as many as possible other objectives appear in the
course of the work. There is the effort of the church the denomination
to extend itself, reproduce itself, in other lands. That this would be the
result was largely assumed at first, and without any great reflection or
planning. What other method would a mission pursue? The denomina-
tions were taking themselves quite seriously when the modern movement
began. The denominations had grown up under conviction, and continued
in the belief that essential and complete Christianity required their par-
ticular expression of the religion of the Lord Jesus and their witness to it.
There was then little of the more recent sense of the loss, the incongruity,
the shame of a divided Christianity.

The aim was from the start to " plant Christianity " in the lands where
it was not. What this meant could not be foreseen in detail. Much energy
of thought and conference in councils have been devoted to this question
without yet reaching any final definition. For the first hundred years the
question did not arise when this undertaking of planting Christianity in
any land might be thought of as completed. In the last thirty years it has
arisen and has for some become acute. About the middle of the nineteenth
century, Dr. W. N. Cust stated the objective of Christian missions as
being the production in the missionary lands of self-supporting, self-
governing, self-propagating churches. The phrase caught the imagination
of the missionary world and has been authoritative and inspiring and un-
questioned until within recent years, when conditions are calling for re-
thinking it. Just what is a church in this definition of the objective?
When has it become self-supporting, self-governing, self -propagating? Who
is to determine when this is accomplished? The authorities of the sending
church? The missionaries who have produced the church? The church
itself in the mission field? Do we mean by the church the congregation
of believers in a given location, so that the goal is reached by stages and
progressively, unit after unit? Or do we mean the denomination as repro-
duced from the home base or the mission field, so that the Presbyterian
Church in Korea might come to the goal while the Methodist Church in
Korea was still a dependent a missionary church? Do we mean the
whole body of Christians in a given location, so that city by city the goal
shall be reached? Do we mean all the communicant Evangelical Christians
in a country, so that for even so extensive a country as China the one
church shall come as a unit to this goal?

Then there are a lot of questions growing out of the three terms of
the definition. How shall it be determined when a church is self-supporting?
How much is involved in this? Who is to determine when it is capable
of self-government? Who shall govern it until then? and who transmit
the right of self-government? What is the standard by which to test self-

A SURVEY OF THE MODERN EVANGELICAL PERIOD 311

propagation? In what order shall the three ideals be sought and required
by the creating and directing mission? It was long assumed, and upon
occasion asserted, that a church was not to be regarded as capable of
self-government until it was self-supporting. The first expression of
Christianity is witnessing, and the first mark of a church would properly
be propagation. To that it should be encouraged by the mission. Its
right and duty of self-direction would be far more readily recognized if we
trusted the Holy Spirit as did the missionaries in the first days of Chris-
tianity. Self-support might well be the last of the three characteristics to
be attained. All these matters belong to the problem of what has come to
be called "the indigenous church." This has come to be one definite
objective of the missionary enterprise. It constitutes the major question
in present-day missionary strategy.

Social reconstruction is a. by-product and a legitimate indirect objective.
There are "social aspects of foreign missions" which cannot be over-
looked. Thirty years ago, the late Dr. J. S. Dennis set out in three great
volumes the outline story of Christianity and Social Progress. Other vol-
umes have taken account of this, and it cannot be overlooked. A part of the
science of missions seeks to determine the place of this objective in the pro-
grammes of the work. The ultimate hope is "making the world Christian"
" a new heaven and -a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness."

Missionary strategy has had three- methods: evangelism, healing, edu-
cation. Each of these has had a growing history, and has called for
thoughtful statesmanship. The interrelation of the three is obvious. The
detailed interrelations and interactions are complex and varied. In evan-
gelism much had to be learned about approach, the place of natives in the
organized work of evangelism, and the terms and conditions of receiving
converts. Mass conversions .have produced serious problems in certain
sections of India and Africa.

The missionary had to be a healer. The sciences of medicine, sanita-
tion, surgery, dentistry, all the arts of personal and social hygiene were
practically unknown in two-thirds of the world a hundred and fifty years
ago. Christian missions introduced them. They were able to carry on
these arts in only a limited way and with modest equipment.^ They led
the way which was followed by personal initiative on the part of natives
in all lands ; by governments ; and by benevolent organizations not directly
connected with the missions. Outstanding among benevolent agencies for
the scientific hygienic development of backward peoples is the General
Medical Board, which is making a stupendous contribution to the physical
well-being of a large part of the human race. But for the example and
inspiration of medical missions, the Rockefeller Board would never have
entered upon its noble undertaking. In what lands and locations to con-
duct medical missions; what proportion of available funds to give to other
phases of the work; how to relate this to the work of evangelism; what
relations shall be maintained with independent and government medical
efforts these are problems for the missionary strategists, and they change
with the growing advance of what the missionary began.

Education is a vital part of missionary strategy, and introduces many

3T2 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

questions. Religious education is required for converts that they may be
intelligent Christians, for the children of Christians, for workers in the
Christian cause. Fundamental education helps to make the Christian com-
munity self-sustaining and contributes to the economic programme of the
people. The missionary education in its various forms leads to educational
systems where none had existed and to new systems in the place of the
old, which no longer meet the needs of people advancing under the new
light of Christianity. The objectives of missionary education call for defi-
nition, then the relation of missionary education to that supported and con-
trolled by the governments. When governments undertake to control the
mission schools many complications arise as in China at this moment.

Then there is the education of the supporting constituency. Each oper-
ating organization has its official organ for instructing its clientele. There
has been a Missionary Education Movement since 1902 for all who can be
induced to take advantage of it. Schools of missions, for the preparation
of missionaries and for their further study while on furlough, have been
organized, and some of them are doing notable service. The University of
Halle, in Germany, had a professorship of missions, inaugurated in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century and occupied with ability by Dr. Gustav
Warneck. But this was the only such professorship in Europe until well
into the twentieth century. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
established such a professorship in 1899, the first in America, but followed
by others. There are three or four great missionary libraries, one at Yale,
one in London, one in Germany, and the Research Library in New York
recently affiliated with and moved to a location within Columbia University.

"Language Schools," located in several foreign lands, give necessary
training to missionaries during the first year in the countries in which
they are to labour. Boards have learned to encourage missionaries to use
furlough periods in study in universities, theological seminaries and tech-
nical schools for increasing equipment and skill for their calling. Graduate
schools of missions now provide facilities for continued preparation, review
and research on the part of those whose positions and abilities call for
unending advance, just as in other lines of human leadership.

Guidance for candidates for missionary service has been given by the
various boards, then more formally by a Board of Missionary Preparation,
a subsidiary of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, and by
a similar commission in Great Britain. In America this work is now
encouraged and supervised by the Committee of Reference and Counsel of
the Foreign Missions Conference. The important thing is that no impor-
tant organization any longer sends missionaries without seeing to it that
they have special preparation, manifest real capacity and have the spirit
of growth and progress.

Christian missions are becoming ever more the method by which the
followers of Jesus Christ serve Him in His undertaking, by regeneration
and reconciliation to create out of the broken fragments of humanity "one
new human race," for " if any man is in Christ there is a new creation.
Old things have passed away, lo, they have become new."

BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR REFERENCE AND FURTHER STUDY

The aim in the Bibliographies is to give the student guidance to the sources
and authorities for further study or for confirmation of the materials as pre-
sented in this volume. Only the more important works are cited, the lists for
each chapter being held within working limits of the student.

In some instances books now out of print are listed because they are
valuable for further study, and they can usually be procured from libraries.

FOR CHAPTER I
BROWN The Why and How of Foreign Missions, Missionary Education Move-

ment, 1908.

4ZAIA Christ and the Human Race, Houghton Mifflin Co, 1906. Out of print.
McFADYEN The Missionary Idea in Life and Religion, Scribner's, 1926.

The Present Day Summons to the World Mission of Christianity, Cokesbury

Press, 1931.
R Are Foreign Missions Done For?, Presbyterian Board, 1928.

FOR CHAPTER II
CARVER Missions in the Plan of the Ages, Revell, 1909.

The Bible a Missionary Message, Revell, 1921.

HORTON The Bible a Missionary Book, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, 1900.
TAIT Christ and the Nations, Hodder & Stoughton, 1910.
ANGUS The Environment of Early Christianity, Scribner's, 1915.

The Religious Quests of the Graco-Roman- World, Murray, 1929.
CASE The Evolution of Early Christianity, University of Chicago Press, 1914.

FOR CHAPTER III
CARVER, HORTON, TAI* as f<6- Chapter II.
ROBSON The Resurrection Gospel, Eaton & Mains, 1908.

FOR CHAPTER IV

CARVER and ROBSON as for Chapters II and III.
ALLEN Essential Missionary Principles, Revell, 1913.

Missionary Methods St. Paul's or Oursf, Scott, London, 1913.
CARVER Commentary on Acts, Baptist Sunday School Board, 1916.
Any good commentary on Acts.

FOR CHAPTER V

BARNES Two Thousand Years of Missions Before Carey, American Baptist Publica-

tion Society, 1900.
HOHACH Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, Williams and Nor-

gate, London, 1904.
Ante-Nicene Fathers.
Various Church Histories.

FOR CHAPTER VII
BARNES, as cited for Chapter V.

LA GARDE The Latin Church in the Middle Ages, Scribner's, 1915.
MACI.EAR History of Christian Missions in the Middle Ages, Macmillan, 1863.
ROBINSON The Conversion of Europe, Longmans, 1917.
SMITH Mediaeval Missions, Clark (Scribner's), 1880.
WHITLEY Missionary Achievement, Revell, 1908.
Various Church Histories.

313

3T2 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

questions. Religious education is required for converts that they may be
intelligent Christians, for the children of Christians, for workers in the
Christian cause. Fundamental education helps to make the Christian com-
munity self-sustaining and contributes to the economic programme of the
people. The missionary education in its various forms leads to educational
systems where none had existed and to new systems in the place of the
old, which no longer meet the needs of people advancing under the new
light of Christianity. The objectives of missionary education call for defi-
nition, then the relation of missionary education to that supported and con-
trolled by the governments. When governments undertake to control the
mission schools many complications arise as in China at this moment.

Then there is the education of the supporting constituency. Each oper-
ating organization has its official organ for instructing its clientele. There
has been a Missionary Education Movement since 1902 for all who can be
induced to take advantage of it. Schools of missions, for the preparation
of missionaries and for their further study while on furlough, have been
organized, and some of them are doing notable service. The University of
Halle, in Germany, had a professorship of missions, inaugurated in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century and occupied with ability by Dr. Gustav
Warneck. But this was the only such professorship in Europe until well
into the twentieth century. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
established such a professorship in 1899, the first in America, but followed
by others. There are three or four great missionary libraries, one at Yale,
one in London, one in Germany, and the Research Library in New York
recently affiliated with and moved to a location within Columbia University.

"Language Schools," located in several foreign lands, give necessary
training to missionaries during the first year in the countries in which
they are to labour. Boards have learned to encourage missionaries to use
furlough periods in study in universities, theological seminaries and tech-
nical schools for increasing equipment and skill for their calling. Graduate
schools of missions now provide facilities for continued preparation, review
and research on the part of those whose positions and abilities call for
unending advance, just as in other lines of human leadership.

Guidance for candidates for missionary service has been given by the
various boards, then more formally by a Board of Missionary Preparation,
a subsidiary of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, and by
a similar commission in Great Britain. In America this work is now
encouraged and supervised by the Committee of Reference and Counsel of
the Foreign Missions Conference. The important thing is that no impor-
tant organization any longer sends missionaries without seeing to it that
they have special preparation, manifest real capacity and have the spirit
of growth and progress.

Christian missions are becoming ever more the method by which the
followers of Jesus Christ serve Him in His undertaking, by regeneration
and reconciliation to create out of the broken fragments of humanity "one
new human race," for " if any man is in Christ there is a new creation.
Old things have passed away, lo, they have become new."

BIBLIOGRAPHIES FOR REFERENCE AND FURTHER STUDY

The aim in the Bibliographies is to give the student guidance to the sources
and authorities for further study or for confirmation of the materials as pre-
sented in this volume. Only the more important works are cited, the lists for
each chapter being held within working limits of the student.

In some instances books now out of print are listed because they are
valuable for further study, and they can usually be procured from libraries.

FOR CHAPTER I
BROWN The Why and How of Foreign Missions, Missionary Education Move-

ment, 1908.

^HAU. Christ and the Human Race, Houghton Mifflin Co, 1906. Out of print.
McFADYEN The Missionary Idea in Life and Religion, Scribner's, 1926.
jfoTT The Present Day Summons to the World Mission of Christianity, Cokesbury
Press, 1931.
Are Foreign Missions Done For?, Presbyterian Board, 1928.

FOR CHAPTER II
CARVER Missions in the Plan of the Ages, Revell, 1909.

The Bible a Missionary Message, Revell, 1921.

HORTON The Bible a Missionary Book, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, 1900.
TAIT Christ and the Nations, Hodder & Stoughton, 1910.
ANGUS The Environment of Early Christianity, Scribner's, 1915.

The Religious Quests of the Grace-Roman- World, Murray, 1929.
CASE The Evolution of Early Christianity, University of Chicago Press, 1914.

FOR CHAPTER III
CARVER, HORTON, TAIT as fdr Chapter II.
ROBSON The Resurrection Gospel, Eaton & Mains, 1908.

FOR CHAPTER IV

CARVER and ROBSON as for Chapters II and III.
AiAEN Essential Missionary Principles, Revell, 1913.

Missionary Methods St. Paul's or Oursf, Scott, London, 1913.
CARVER Commentary on Acts, Baptist Sunday School Board, 1916.
Any good commentary on Acts.

FOR CHAPTER V
BARNES Two Thousand Years of Missions Before Carey, American Baptist Publica-

tion Society, 1900.
HOMACH Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, Williams and Nor-

gate, London, 1904.
Ante-Nicene Fathers.
Various Church Histories.

FOR CHAPTER VII
BARNES, as cited for Chapter V.

LA GARDE The Latin Church in the Middle Ages, Scribner's, 1915.
MACZ.EAR History of Christian Missions in the Middle Ages, Macmillan, 1863.
ROBINSON The Conversion of Europe, Longmans, 1917.
SMITH Mediaeval Missions, Clark (Scribner's), 1880.
WHITLEY Missionary Achievement, Revell, 1908.
Various Church Histories.

313

3H THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

FOR CHAPTER VIII

Works named for Chapter VII, and Lives of Francis of Assissi (Sabatier, Dobson, or
other), and Ramon Lull (Zwemer, or other).

FOR CHAPTER IX

Missionary Histories as previously named; Church Histories; and Histories of Chris-
tian Missions for the various countries.

BARNES, MACLEAR, MOORE, ROBINSON, SMITH, WARNECK and WHITLEY are most valu-
able for the average student.

FOR CHAPTER X

BLISS The Missionary Enterprise, Revell, 1908.

CARVER Missions, and Modern Thought, Macmillan, 1910. Out of print can be got-
ten from author.

CREIGHTON Missions Rise and Development, Holt, 1912.
GRACEY Protestant Missions, Scribner's, 1894. Out of print.
GULICK Growth of the Kingdom of God, Pilgrim Press, 1910. Out of print
MOORE West and East, Scribner's, 1920.
ROBINSON History of Christian Missions, Scribner's, 1912.
SPEER Missions and Modern History, Revell, 1904. Out of print.
WARNECK History of Protestant Missions, Revell, 1906. Out of print.
Histories of the various denominations and of their missions.

FOR CHAPTER XI

BLISS' and ROBINSON'S works, as named for previous chapters.
LEONARD A Hundred Years of Missions, Funk and .Wagnalls, 1895.
Lives of William Carey, by SMITH (Hodder & Stoughton, 1887), and S. PEARCS

CAREY (great-grandson of William), Doran, 1923.
VEDDER Short History of Baptist Missions, Judson Press, 1930.
GRACEY Protestant Missions, as Chapter X.

World Missionary Atlas, Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1925.
Histories of the various missionary societies.

FOR CHAPTER XII

Popular Histories, as BLISS and ROBINSON, previously listed.

GLOVER Progress of Worldwide Missions, New Edition, 1931, Richard R. Smith.
FARQUHAR Modern Religious Movement in India, Macmillan, 1915.
HUME An Interpretation of India's Religious History , Revell, 1911. Out of print.
MOORE West and East, as in previous chapters.

RICHTER A History of Protestant Missions in India, Edinburgh, 1908.
KENDALL Come with Me to India, Scribner's, 1931.

FOR CHAPTER XIII

Handbook Histories as for previous chapters.
China Christian Year Book.

China Today Through Chinese Eyes, London, 1922 and 1928.
BASHEORD China, an Interpretation, Methodist Book Concern, 1920.
DEGROOT The Religion of the Chinese, Macmillan, 1910. Out of print.
SOOTHILL The Three Religions of China, Oxford, 1923.
GOWEN AND HALL History of China, Appleton, 1926.
LATOTTRETTE History of Christian Missions in China, Macmillan, 1929.
MACGILLIVRAY A Century of Missions in China, Christian Literature Society, 1907.
MOORE West and East; as for previous chapters.

FOR CHAPTER XIV

Handbook Histories.

BRINKLEY A History of the Japanese People, Encyclopaedia Britannica Company,

New York.
CAREY A History of Christianity in Japan, (2 vols.), Revell, 1909.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 315

HARADA The Faith of Japan, Macmillan, 1926.

REISCHAUER The Task in Japan, Revell, 1926.

The Christian Movement in Japan, especially for 1923, 1928, 1929.

ALLEN Things Korean, Revell Co. Out of print.

CYNN The Rebirth of Korea, Abingdon Press, 1920.

KIM History of Christian Missions in Korea, Keijo, 1931.

McKEwziE Korea's Fight for Freedom, Revell, 1920.

Christian Year Book of Japan and Korea.

FOR CHAPTER XV

The Handbook Histories, especially BLISS and ROBINSON.
BARTON Daybreak in Turkey, Pilgrim Press, 1908. Out of print.
DWIGHT Constantinople and Its Problems, Revell, 1901. Out of print.
EvERSLEY The Turkish Empire, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1917.
HAMLIN My Life and Times, Revell. Out of print.
MATTHEWS The Riddle of Nearer Asia, Doran, 1919.
RICHTER A History of Protestant Missions in the Near East, Revell, 1910.

FOR CHAPTER XVII

The Handbooks and West and East.

DuPLESsis History of Christian Missions in South Africa, Longmans, 1911.

Evangelization of Pagan Africa, Juta, 1929.

FRASER The New Africa, Missionary Education Movement, New York, 1927.'
GIBBONS The New Map of Africa, Century Co., 1928.
SIBREE Fifty Years in Madagascar, Houghton, 1924.
MATTHEWS Thirty Years in Madagascar, London, 1904.
NOBLE The Redemption of Africa, New York, 1899. Out of print.
WATSON The Valley of the Nile, Revell. Out of print.

FOR CHAPTER XVIII
Handbooks, especially ROBINSON.

. ALEXANDER The Islands of the Pacific, New York, 1895.
CoLWELL (Eo.) A Century in the Pacific, Epworth Press, London.
FLETCHER The New Pacific, Macmillan, 1917.
Biographies of Chalmers, Paton, Selwyn, Williams, etc.

FOR CHAPTER XIX

BLISS, GLOVER, ROBINSON (fullest account).

BEACH Renaissant Latin America, Missionary Education Movement, 1916.

BRYCE South America, Macmillan, 1914.

Christian Work in Latin America The (1916) Panama Conference, 4 vols., Mission-
ary Education Movement, 1917.

CLARK The Gospel in Latin Lands, Macmillan, 1909.

INMAN Problems in Pan-Americanism, Doran, 1921.

McLEAN The Living Christ for Latin America, Presbyterian Board of Publica-
tion, 1916.

SPEER (ED.) Christian Work in South America The Montevideo Conference f
(.1925), 2 vols., Revell, 1925.

WORCESTER Philippines Past and Present, Macmillan, 1914.

World Missionary Atlas, New York, 1905.

FOR CHAPTER XX

BAIN The New Reformation, T. & T. Clark, 1906? Out of print
CANNON History of Southern Methodist Missions, Cokesbury Press, 1926.
CLARK The Gospel in Latin Lands, Macmillan, 1909.'
COOKE Religion in Russia Under the Soviets, Cokesbury Press, 1927.
GILL Europe and the Gospel, Foreign Mission Board, Richmond, Va., 1931.
RUSHBROOKE The Baptist Movement in the Continent of Europe, Carey Press, 1923.

Some Chapters of European Baptist History, Kingsgate Press, 1929.
VEDDER A Short History of Baptist Missions, Judson Press, 1930.

3H THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

FOR CHAPTER VIII

Works named for Chapter VII, and Lives of Francis of Assissi (Sabatier, Dobson, or
other), and Ramon Lull (Zwemer, or other).

FOR CHAPTER IX

Missionary Histories as previously named; Church Histories; and Histories of Chris-
tian Missions for the various countries.

BARNES, MACLEAR, MOORE, ROBINSON, SMITH, WARNECK and WHITLEY are most valu-
able for the average student.

FOR CHAPTER X

BLISS The Missionary Enterprise, Revell, 1908.

CARVER Missions and Modern Thought, Macmillan, 1910. Out of print can be got-
ten from author.

CREIGHTON Missions Rise and Development, Holt, 1912.
GRACEY Protestant Missions, Scribner's, 1894. Out of print.
GULICK Growth of the Kingdom of God, Pilgrim Press, 1910. Out of print
MOORE West and East, Scribner's, 1920.
ROBINSON History of Christian Missions, Scribner's, 1912.
SPEER Missions and Modern History, Revell, 1904. Out of print.
WARNECK History of Protestant Missions, Revell, 1906. Out of print.
Histories of the various denominations and of their missions.

FOR CHAPTER XI

BLISS' and ROBINSON'S works, as named for previous chapters.

LEONARD A Hundred Years of Missions, Funk and .Wagnalls, 1895.

Lives of William Carey, by SMITH (Hodder & Stoughton, 1887), and S. PEARCS

CAREY (great-grandson of William), Doran, 1923.
VEDDER Short History of Baptist Missions, Judson Press, 1930.
GRACEY Protestant Missions, as Chapter X.

World Missionary Atlas, Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1925.
Histories of the various missionary societies.

FOR CHAPTER XII

Popular Histories, as BLISS and ROBINSON, previously listed.

GLOVER Progress of Worldwide Missions, New Edition, 1931, Richard R. Smith.

FARQUHAR Modern Religious Movement in India, Macmillan, 1915.

HUME An Interpretation of India's Religious History , Revell, 1911. Out of print.

MOORE West and East, as in previous chapters.

RICHTER A History of Protestant Missions in India, Edinburgh, 1908.

KENDALL Come with Me to India, Scribner's, 1931.

FOR CHAPTER XIII

Handbook Histories as for previous chapters.
China Christian Year Book.

China Today Through Chinese Eyes, London, 1922 and 1928.
BASHEORD China, an Interpretation, Methodist Book Concern, 1920.
DEGROOT The Religion of the Chinese, Macmillan, 1910. Out of print.
SOOTHILL The Three Religions of China, Oxford, 1923.
GOWEN AND HALL History of China, Appleton, 1926.
LATOTTRETTE History of Christian Missions in China, Macmillan, 1929.
MACGILLIVRAY A Century of Missions in China, Christian Literature Society, 1907.
MOORE West and East; as for previous chapters.

FOR CHAPTER XIV

Handbook Histories.

BRINKLEY A History of the Japanese People, Encyclopaedia Britannica Company,

New York.
CAREY A History of Christianity in Japan, (2 vols.), Revell, 1909.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 315

HARADA The Faith of Japan, Macmillan, 1926.
REISCHAUER - The Task in Japan, Revell, 1926.
The Christian Movement in Japan, especially for 1923, 1928, 1929.
N Things Korean, Revell Co. Out of print.
The Rebirth of Korea, Abingdon Press, 1920.
History of Christian Missions in Korea, Keijo, 1931.
KENZiE Korea's Fight for Freedom, Revell, 1920.
Christian Year Book of Japan and Korea.

FOR CHAPTER XV

The Handbook Histories, especially Buss and ROBINSON.
BARTON Daybreak in Turkey, Pilgrim Press, 1908. Out of print.
DWIGHT Constantinople and Its Problems, Revell, 1901. Out of print.
EvERSLEY The Turkish Empire, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1917.
HAMLIN My Life and Times, Revell. Out of print.
MATTHEWS The Riddle of Nearer Asia, Doran, 1919.
RICHTER A History of Protestant Missions in the Near Bast, Revell, 1910.

FOR CHAPTER XVII
The Handbooks and West and East.
DuPLESSis History of Christian Missions in South Africa, Longmans, 1911.

Evangelization of Pagan Africa, Juta, 1929.

PHASER The New Africa, Missionary Education Movement, New York, 1927.-
GIBBONS The New Map of Africa, Century Co., 1928.
SIBREE Fifty Years in Madagascar, Houghton, 1924.
MATTHEWS Thirty Years in Madagascar, London, 1904.
NOBLE The Redemption of Africa, New York, 1899. Out of print
WATSON The Valley of the Nile, Revell. Out of print.

FOR CHAPTER XVIII
Handbooks, especially ROBINSON.

. ALEXANDER The Islands of the Pacific, New York, 1895.
COLWELL (En.) A Century in the Pacific, Epworth Press, London.
FLETCHER The New Pacific, Macmillan, 1917.
Biographies of Chalmers, Paton, Selwyn, Williams, etc.

FOR CHAPTER XIX

BLISS, GLOVER, ROBINSON (fullest account).

BEACH Renaissant Latin America, Missionary Education Movement, 1916.

BRYCE South America, Macmillan, 1914.

Christian Work in Latin America The (1916) Panama Conference, 4 vols., Mission-
ary Education Movement, 1917.

CLARK The Gospel in Latin Lands, Macmillan, 1909.

INMAN Problems in Pan-Americanism, Doran, 1921.

McLEAN The Living Christ for Latin America, Presbyterian Board of Publica-
tion, 1916.

SPEER (ED.) Christian Work in South America The Montevideo Conference,
(1925), 2 vols., Revell, 1925.

WORCESTER Philippines Past and Present, Macmillan, 1914.

World Missionary Atlas, New York, 1905.

FOR CHAPTER XX

BAIN The New Reformation, T. & T. Clark, 1906? Out of print.
CANNON History of Southern Methodist Missions, Cokesbury Press, 1926.
CLARK The Gospel in Latin Lands, Macmillan, 1909.'
COOKE Religion in Russia Under the Soviets, Cokesbury Press, 1927.
GiLL Europe and the Gospel, Foreign Mission Board, Richmond, Va., 1931.
RUSHBROOKE The Baptist Movement in the Continent of Europe, Carey Press, 1923.

Some Chapters of European Baptist History, Kingsgate Press, 1929.
VEDDER A Short History of Baptist Missions, Judson Press, 1930.

316 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

FOR CHAPTER XXI
ROBINSON, as cited for preceding chapters.
Encyclopedia of Missions, Funk and Wagnalls, 1904.
GIDNEY History of London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews,

London, 1908.

THOMPSON A Century of Jewish Missions, Revell, 1902.
World Missionary Atlas, see for Chapter XI.

FOR CHAPTER XXII
Buss and ROBINSON, of the Handbooks.
AU/DRIDGE The New Challenge of Home Missions, Sunday School Board, Nashville,

1927.

CLARK Leavening the Nation, Baker & Taylor Co., 1903.
DOUGLAS The New Home Missions, Missionary Education Movement, 1914.
HODGE History of American Indians, Washington, 1910.
JOHNSON The Negro in American Civilization, Holt, 1930.
McAFEE Missions Striking Home, Reyell, 1908.

MASTERS Making America Christian, Home Mission Board, Atlanta, 1920.
MORGAN The Negro in America, A. B. P. Society, 1898.
Negro Year Book, Tuskegee, Ala.

WASHINGTON Up from Slavery, Houghton Mifflin, 1917.
WEATHERI?ORD Negro Life in the South, Association Press, 1910.

The Negro from Africa to America, Doran, 1924.
Numerous Biographies.
Various Histories of American Christianity.

FOR CHAPTER XXIII

Books as listed for Chapter I.

The Jerusalem Conference of the International Missionary Council, 8 vols., Institute
of Social and Religious Research, 1928.

McAFEE Changing Foreign Missions, Revell, 1927.

McCoNNEM/ Human Needs and World Christianity, Missionary Education Move-
ment, 1931.

MoW The Present Day Summons to the World Mission of Christianity, Cokesbury
Press, 1931.

WARBURTON The Making of Modern Missions, Revell, 1931.

Publications of Foreign Missions Conference of North America, New York.

Files of International Review of Missions, London and New York.

IKDEX

Abeel, David, 185

Abraham, 17, 24

Abyssinia, 67, 109

Ahura Mazda, 10

Albert de las Casas, 82

Albuquerque, 102

Allah, 10

Allen, H. N., 216

Amboyna, 107

Anderson, John, 164

Andrew of Perugia, 88

Animatism, 12

Anne, 70

Ansgar, 75

Antioch, 37, 38, 54

Apostles, 20

Apostolic Age, 43

Arabia, 65

Arguments vs. Missions, 124

Aristides, 49

Armenia, 64

Arnobius, 50

Arya-somaj, 173

Augustine, 74

Augustinians, 99

Azores Islands, 82

Bagby, W. B., 271

Ballaugh, Dr., of Japan, 205 f.

Baptist Missionary Society, 139f.

Baptist World Alliance, 280 f.

Bardaisan, 54

Barnabas, 48

Barrows Lectures, 170

Bases of Supply, 134

Bentley, Wm., 248

Bliss, D. and H., 226

Bogoris, 69

Bohemia, 69

Boniface (Wilfrid), 74 *

Boone, Bishop, 186

Borghese, 101

Bostra, 55, 161

Boxers, 182, 1941

Brahmo-somaj, 173

Brainerd, David, 112

Brazil, 106, 108

Bridgman, E. C., 186

British East India Company, 133, 162,

178, 184

British Isles, 56, 70 ff.
Brotherhood, 11, 12
Brown, Nathan, 204, 210
Brown, S. R., 204, 210

Browning, W. E., 273
Buchanan, Claudius, 163
Buddhism, 9
Burma, 100, 167

Cambridge University Mission, 246

Canary Islands, 82

Cape Verde Islands, 82

Carey, Lott, 244

Carey, William, 138 ff., 166

Ceremonialism, 39

Ceylon, 100, 107

Chalmers, James, 260

Charlemagne, 75

China, 54, 65, 87 ff., 102

China Inland Mission, 143

Christ, 11, 23

Standard for the world, 305 f.
Christian Church, 37, 39
Christianity, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 23, 25, 36,
39, 40, 41, 44

Modified by missions, 306

A. teaching religion, 50
Church, 23, 24, 42, 43
Cilicia, 39
Clement, 48, 49
Clotilde, 73
Clovis, 73
Clough, John, 171
Coan, Titus, 261
Coillard, F., 251
Coke, Thos., 143
Colonial, 10, 106
Columba, 72
Columbanus, 73
Columbus, 93

Commission, 14, 15, 17, 31, 35
Commodianus, 49
Conferences, 151 ff.
Continuation Committee, 154
Constantine, 53
Cornelius, 38
Cox, Melville B., 244
Crawford, Dan, 249
Crete, 37

Cromwell's Plan, 125 f.
Crowther, Samuel, 242, 244, 246
Crusades, 11, 84
Cyprian, 50
Cyprus, 37
Cyril and Methodius, 69

Daniel, 21

Danish Colonial Missions, 108 ff.

317

3i6 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS

FOR CHAPTER XXI
ROBINSON, as cited for preceding chapters.
Encyclopedia of Missions, Funk and Wagnalls, 1904.
GIDNEY History of London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews,

London, 1908.

THOMPSON A Century of Jewish Missions, Revell, 1902.
World Missionary Atlas, see for Chapter XI.

FOR CHAPTER XXII
Buss and ROBINSON, of the Handbooks.
AIADRIDGS The New Challenge of Home Missions, Sunday School Board, Nashville,

1927.

CLARK Leavening the Nation, Baker & Taylor Co., 1903.
DOUGLAS The New Home Missions, Missionary Education Movement, 1914.
HODGE History of American Indians, Washington, 1910.
JOHNSON The Negro in American Civilization, Holt, 1930.
McA^EE Missions Striking Home, Revell, 1908.

MASTERS Making America Christian, Home Mission Board, Atlanta, 1920.
MofiGAN The Negro in America, A. B. P. Society, 1898.
Negro Year Book, Tuskegee, Ala.

WASHINGTON Up from Slavery, Houghton Mifflin, 1917.
WEATnERtfORD Negro Life in the South, Association Press, 1910.

The Negro from Africa to America, Doran, 1924.
Numerous Biographies.
Various Histories of American Christianity.

FOR CHAPTER XXIII

Books as listed for Chapter I.

The Jerusalem Conference of the International Missionary Council, 8 vols., Institute
of Social and Religious Research, 1928.

McAsEE Changing Foreign Missions, Revell, 1927.

McCoNNEM/ Human Needs and World Christianity, Missionary Education Move-
ment, 1931.

Mow The Present Day Summons to the World Mission of Christianity, Cokesbury
Press, 1931.

WARBURTON The Making of Modern Missions, Revell, 1931.

Publications of Foreign Missions Conference of North America, New York.

Files of International Review of Missions, London and New York.

IKDEX

Abeel, David, 185

Abraham, 17, 24

Abyssinia, 67, 109

Ahura Mazda, 10

Albert de las Casas, 82

Albuquerque, 102

Allah, 10

Allen, H. N., 216

Amboyna, 107

Anderson, John, 164

Andrew of Perugia, 88

Animatism, 12

Anne, 70

Ansgar, 75

Antioch, 37, 38, 54

Apostles, 20

Apostolic Age, 43

Arabia, 65

Arguments vs. Missions, 124

Aristides, 49

Armenia, 64

Arnobius, 50

Arya-somaj, 173

Augustine, 74

Augustinians, 99

Azores Islands, 82

Bagby, W. B., 271

Ballaugh, Dr., of Japan, 205 f.

Baptist Missionary Society, 139f.

Baptist World Alliance, 280 f.

Bardaisan, 54

Barnabas, 48

Barrows Lectures, 170

Bases of Supply, 134

Bentley, Wm., 248

Bliss, D. and H., 226

Bogoris, 69

Bohemia, 69

Boniface (Wilfrid), 74 ^

Boone, Bishop, 186

Borghese, 101

Bostra, 55, 161

Boxers, 182, 194 f.

Brahmo-somaj, 173

Brainerd, David, 112

Brazil, 106, 108

Bridgman, E. C., 186

British East India Company, 133, 162,

178, 184

British Isles, 56, 70 8.
Brotherhood, 11, 12
Brown, Nathan, 204, 210
Brown, S. R., 204, 210

Browning, W. E., 273
Buchanan, Claudius, 163
Buddhism, 9
Burma, 100, 167

Cambridge University Mission, 246

Canary Islands, 82

Cape Verde Islands, 82

Carey, Lott, 244

Carey, William, 138 ff., 166

Ceremonialism, 39

Ceylon, 100, 107

Chalmers, James, 260

Charlemagne, 75

China, 54, 65, 87 ff., 102

China Inland Mission, 143

Christ, 11, 23

Standard for the world, 305 f.
Christian Church, 37, 39
Christianity, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 23, 25, 36,
39, 40, 41, 44

Modified by missions, 306

A. teaching religion, 50
"Church, 23, 24, 42, 43
Cilicia, 39
Clement, 48, 49
Clotilde, 73
Clovis, 73
Clough, John, 171
Coan, Titus, 261
Coillard, F., 251
Coke, Thos., 143
Colonial, 10, 106
Columba, 72
Columbanus, 73
Columbus, 93

Commission, 14, 15, 17, 31, 35
Commodianus, 49
Conferences, 151 ff.
Continuation Committee, 154
Constantine, 53
Cornelius, 38
Cox, Melville B., 244
Crawford, Dan, 249
Crete, 37

Cromwell's Plan, 125 f.
Crowther, Samuel, 242, 244, 246
Crusades, 11, 84
Cyprian, 50
Cyprus, 37
Cyril and Methodius, 69

Daniel, 21

Danish Colonial Missions, 108 ff.

317

INDEX

Danish-Halle Mission, 160

Dispersion, 21

Division of Empire and Church, 60

Dominican Order, 79

Doshisha, 209, 211

Duff, Alex., 164

Dunster, Henry, 111

Dutch Colonial Missions, 106

Ebo, 75

Edkins, J., 188

Edwards, Jonathan, 111

Egypt, 37, 67

Eliot, John, 111

Ephesians, 11

Ephesus, 54

Erasmus, 125

"Ethiopian Movement," 242

Expansion, 36, 300

Exploration of Africa, 236 ff.

Feudalism, 78

Fiske, Pliny, 230

Foreign Missions inaugurated, 37

Formosa, 108, 213

Francis of Assissi, 79, 84

Free Churches in Europe, 279

Frey, C. P., 288

Frumentius, 67

Gairdner, T. H., 228

Callus, 73

Gandhi, 159, 173

Gardiner, Capt Allen, 270

Gaul, 56, 73

Geddie, John, 263

Gentiles, 37, 38, 39

Gnosticism, 37

Goble, Jonathan, 204

God-fearers, 22

Gospel, 9, 14, 15, 23, 29, 33

Gospel of the Holy Spirit, 34, 35

Gotama, 9

Goths, 60, 68

Grseco-Roman, 42

Grant, Charles, 163

Graves, R. H., 189

Greece, 25

Gregory I., 74

Gregory the Illuminator, 54

Grenfell, George, 248

Grenfell, Sir W., 296

Grieg, Peter, 243

Ground of Missions, 13, 14, 15

Grotius, Hugo, 109

Guinness, H. Grattan, 144

Gutzlaff, 185, 189

Hamlin, Cyrus, 225

Hannington, Bishop, 254

Hare, Bishop to American Indians, 295

Harnack, 51

Harris, Townsend, 204

Hartzell, Bishop, 249

Hau-hau-ism, 259, 265

Heathen, 37

Heber, Bishop R., 164

Hebrew Christian Alliance, 290

Hebrews, 17, 19

Hedwig, 81

Heiling, Peter, 109

Henry, Prince, 82

Hepburn, J. C., 204 f.

Heurnius, 107, 126

Holy Spirit, 15, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38, 39,

40, 43

Home Mission Statesmen, 292
Hope, 11
Hymns, 130

Independent Catholic Church in Philip-
pines, 277

India, 10, 37, 54, 89, 99

Indigenous Christianity, 173, 197, 218 f.

Individualism, 39

Influence of Christianity on scholarship,
165

Institution, 29, 44

Inter-church World Movement, 154

International Missionary Council, 154f.

Interracial Commission, 297

lona, 72

Ireland, 71

Jackson, Sheldon, 296

Jains, 10

James, Apostle, 41

Janes, Capt. I/, i,., 209

Japan, 9, 100, 104

Java, 100, 107

Jehovah, 16, 18, 19

Jesus Christ, 9, 11, 12, 14, 27, 29, 30,

31, 32, 37
Jerusalem, 32, 35
Jerusalem Conferences, 39
Jesuits founded, 99
Jewett, 171
Jews, 79, 228 f.
John, Griffith, 188
John of Marignoli, 88, 90
John of Monte Corvino, 87, 89
John of Piano Carpini, 86
Jonah, 21

Judaism, 23, 37, 38, 39, 41
Judea-Samaria, 35
Judson, Adoniram, 146
Justin Martyr, 23, 48

Kagawa, 219
Keith-Falconer, Ion, 228
Kemal, Mustafa, 221, 224
Kentigern, 71

INDEX

319

Kidder, D P, 269

4, 28, 31, 32, 33, 44

j.^.i*i^**

Korea, 215 ff.

Knights of Columbus, 197

Krapf, 237

Kublai Kahn, 86

Kumamoto Band, 209

Lapps, 106

Law of Moses, 15

Legge, Prof., 188

Leibnitz, 129

Life, 11, 12

Lithuania, 81

"Living Church," 284 f.

Livingstone, David, 237, 307

Logos, 37, 42

Lollards, 91 -

Lombards, 61, 75

Loo Choo Islands, 202

Louis IX., 86

Lull, Raymond, 84

Macao, 103

Macedonia, 56

Mackay, Alex., 254

Madagascar, 255 f.

Madeira Islands, 82

Magellan, 101

Mahavira, 10

Marco Polo, 87, 89

Marsden, Samuel, 258

Martin of Tours, 73

Martin, W. A. P., 188, 191

Martyn, Henry, 163.

Martyrdom, 36

Mass conversions, 63, 77

Mauritius, 256

Mayhews, 111

Mesrop, 64

Methods, 10, 47, 62, 98, 142, 144 ff., 164,

302, 311

Methods, Apostolic, 42
Metlakhatla, 296
Mills, S. J. Jr., 123, 145
Miracles, 47

Missions and Culture, 307 f.
Moffatt, Robert, 237, 307
Mohammedanism, 9, 10, 61, 78, 83, 101,

235

Monasteries, 63, 72, 75, 79
Monks, 10, 99
Monotheism, 17, 180
Montevideo Conference; 268
Moors, 80
Moravia, 69 f.
Moravians, 112, 148, 161
Morrison, Robert, 184
Motives, 10, 302

Mott, John R., in Japan, 214
Moule, Arthur, 189
Moule, E. G., 189
Murata Brothers, 205
Murray, Andrew, 251
Mutiny in India, 166
Mystery Religions, 37, 42, 53

National Councils, 155

Neesima, 208

Nestorians, 64 f., 85, 201

Nevius, John L., 188, 216

New Life in Europe, 94

New Testament, 16, 33, 34

Nicolai, Bishop, 207

Ninian/71

Nisibis, 65

North Africa, 37, 49 f., 55, 68, 84

Objectives, 20, 28, 62, 150, 172, 302, 309 f.

Obookiah, 261

Occum, 112

Odoric of Pordenone, 88

Old Testament, 16, 18, 23

Olga, 70

Oncken, J. G., 280

Opening Doors, 135 f.

"Opium War," 180

Organization, 35

Origen, 49, 55

Paul, 11, 22, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40
Panama Conference, 268
Pantsenus, 53, 55
Parker, Peter, 186
Parsons, Levi, 230
Partition of Africa, 238
Paton, John G., 263
Patrick, 72
Patteson, J. C., 262
Peck, E. J., 296
Pentecost, 25, 32, 38, 43
Persia, 37, 54, 65, 88
Personality, 12
^ Pietism, 121
Philippines, 101
Pippin, 61
Plan, 36

" Plan of the Ages," 37
Plutschau, 108
Poland, 70
Pomerania, 81
Portugal, 10
Pratt, B. H., 270
Prayer, 122, 145
Preparation of Missionaries, 312
Progressive Changes in Early Church,

45 ff.

Prophecy, essence of, 32
Prophet, 10, 15
Protestant, 26

INDEX

Danish-Halle Mission, 160

Dispersion, 21

Division of Empire and Church, 60

Dominican Order, 79

Doshisha, 209, 211

Duff, Alex., 164

Dunster, Henry, 111

Dutch Colonial Missions, 106

Ebo, 75

Edkins, J., 188

Edwards, Jonathan, 111

Egypt, 37, 67

Eliot, John, 111

Ephesians, 11

Ephesus, 54

Erasmus, 125

"Ethiopian Movement," 242

Expansion, 36, 300

Exploration of Africa, 236 ff.

Feudalism, 78

Fiske, Pliny, 23~0

Foreign Missions inaugurated, 37

Formosa, 108, 213

Francis of Assissi, 79, 84

Free Churches in Europe, 279

Frey, C. P., 288

Frumentius, 67

Gairdner, T. H., 228

Callus, 73

Gandhi, 159, 173

Gardiner, Capt Allen, 270

Gaul, 56, 73

Geddie, John, 263

Gentiles, 37, 38, 39

Gnosticism, 37

Goble, Jonathan, 204

God-fearers, 22

Gospel, 9, 14, 15, 23, 29, 33

Gospel of the Holy Spirit, 34, 35

Gotama, 9

Goths, 60, 68

Grseco-Roman, 42

Grant, Charles, 163

Graves, R. H., 189

Greece, 25

Gregory I., 74

Gregory the Illuminator, 54

Grenfell, George, 248

Grenfell, Sir W., 296

Grieg, Peter, 243

Ground of Missions, 13, 14, 15

Grotius, Hugo, 109

Guinness, H. Grattan, 144

Gutzlaff, 185, 189

Hamlin, Cyrus, 225

Hannington, Bishop, 254

Hare, Bishop to American Indians, 295

Harnack, 51

Harris, Townsend, 204

Hartzell, Bishop, 249

Hau-hau-ism, 259, 265

Heathen, 37

Heber, Bishop R., 164

Hebrew Christian Alliance, 290

Hebrews, 17, 19

Hedwig, 81

Heiling, Peter, 109

Henry, Prince, 82

Hepburn, J. C., 204 f.

Heurnius, 107, 126

Holy Spirit, 15, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38, 39.

40, 43

Home Mission Statesmen, 292
Hope, 11
Hymns, 130

Independent Catholic Church in Philip-
pines, 277

India, 10, 37, 54, 89, 99

Indigenous Christianity, 173, 197, 218 f.

Individualism, 39

Influence of Christianity on scholarship,
165

Institution, 29, 44

Inter-church World Movement, 154

International Missionary Council, 154f.

Interracial Commission, 297

lona, 72

Ireland, 71

Jackson, Sheldon, 296

Jains, 10

James, Apostle, 41

Janes, Capt. I,. L,., 209

Japan, 9, 100, 104

Java, 100, 107

Jehovah, 16, 18, 19

Jesus Christ, 9, 11, 12, 14, 27, 29, 30,

31, 32, 37
Jerusalem, 32, 35
Jerusalem Conferences, 39
Jesuits founded, 99
Jewett, 171
Jews, 79, 228 f.
John, Griffith, 188
John of Marignoli, 88, 90
John of Monte Corvino, 87, 89
John of Piano Carpini, 86
Jonah, 21

Judaism, 23, 37, 38, 39, 41
Judea-Samaria, 35
Judson, Adoniram, 146
Justin Martyr, 23, 48

Kagawa, 219
Keith-Falconer, Ion, 228
Kemal, Mustafa, 221, 224
Kentigern, 71

INDEX

319

Kidder, D. P., 269

4, 28, 31, 32, 33, 44

Korea, 215 ff.

Knights of Columbus, 197

Krapf, 237

Kublai Kahn, 86

Kumamoto Band, 209

Lapps, 106

Law of Moses, 15

Legge, Prof., 188

Leibnitz, 129

Life, 11, 12

Lithuania, 81'

"Living Church," 284 f.

Livingstone, David, 237, 307

Logos, 37, 42

Lollards, 91 -

Lombards, 61, 75

Loo Choo Islands, 202

Louis IX., 86

Lull, Raymond, 84

Macao, 103

Macedonia, 56

Mackay, Alex., 254

Madagascar, 255 f.

Madeira Islands, 82

Magellan, 101

Mahavira, 10

Marco Polo, 87, 89

Marsden, Samuel, 258

Martin of Tours, 73

Martin, W. A. P., 188, 191

Martyn, Henry, 163.

Martyrdom, 36

Mass conversions, 63, 77

Mauritius, 256

Mayhews, 111

Mesrop, 64

Methods, 10, 47, 62, 98, 142, 144 ff., 164,

302, 311

Methods, Apostolic, 42
Metlakhatla, 296
Mills, S. J. Jr., 123, 145
Miracles, 47

Missions and Culture, 307 f.
Moffatt, Robert, 237, 307
Mohammedanism, 9, 10, 61, 78, 83, 101,

235

Monasteries, 63, 72, 75, 79
Monks, 10, 99
Monotheism, 17, 180
Montevideo Conference; 268
Moors, 80
Moravia, 69 f.
Moravians, 112, 148, 161
Morrison, Robert, 184
Motives, 10, 302

Mott, John R., in Japan, 214
Moule, Arthur, 189
Moule, E. G., 189
Murata Brothers, 205
Murray, Andrew, 251
Mutiny in India, 166
Mystery Religions, 37, 42, 53

National Councils, 155

Neesima, 208

Nestorians, 64 f., 85, 201

Nevius, John L., 188, 216

New Life in Europe, 94

New Testament, 16, 33, 34

Nicolai, Bishop, 207

Ninian,"71

Nisibis, 65

North Africa, 37, 49 f., 55, 68, 84

Objectives, 20, 28, 62, 150, 172, 302, 309 f.

Obookiah, 261

Occum, 112

Odoric of Pordenone, 88

Old Testament, 16, 18, 23

Olga, 70

Oncken, J. G., 280

Opening Doors, 135 f.

"Opium War," 180

Organization, 35

Origen, 49, 55

Paul, 11, 22, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40
Panama Conference, 268
Pantsenus, 53, 55
Parker, Peter, 186
Parsons, Levi, 230
Partition of Africa, 238
Paton, John G., 263
Patrick, 72
Patteson, J. C., 262
Peck, E. J., 296
Pentecost, 25, 32, 38, 43
Persia, 37, 54, 65, 88
Personality, 12
^ Pietism, 121
Philippines, 101
Pippin, 61
Plan, 36

" Plan of the Ages," 37
Plutschau, 108
Poland, 70
Pomerania, 81
Portugal, 10
Pratt, B. H., 270
Prayer, 122, 145
Preparation of Missionaries, 312
Progressive Changes in Early Church,

45 ff.

Prophecy, essence of, 32
Prophet, 10, 15
Protestant, 26

'320

INDEX

Prussia, 81
Psalms, 15

Quadratus, 49

Race, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19
Race Domination, 301
Rangoon, 165
Rebmann, 237
Regeneration, 11
Religion, 12, 13, 14, 27
Resurrection, 31
Revivals, 121
Ricci, 102
Rice, Luther, 146
Richards, Timothy, 180
Riggs, Elias, 226
Riu Kiu Islands, 213
Robert de Nobili, 100
Rome, 25, 26, 37, 41
Ross, James, 216
Russia, 70 '

Russian Orthodox Church, 97, 197, 207,
231, 296

Saint Thomas Christians, 65, 161

Saker, Alfred, 247

Salvation Army, 144, 214

Sara via, 125

Sargeants, John, Sr. and Jr., Ill

Scandinavian countries, 75

Schall, 103

Schwartz, C. F., 108, 160 -

Schweitzer, Alfred, 247

Science of Missions, 309

Scotland, 71

Scudder, John, 167

Selwyn, Bishop, 259, 262

Septuagint, 22

Severinus, 69

Slessor, Mary, 247

South America, progress in, 267 ff.

Spain, 10, 37, 73, 80

Stanley, H. M., 237, 248, 250, 307

Staughton, Wm., 145

Stewardship, 24

"Stewart of Lovedale," 251

Straits Settlements, 185

Student Volunteer Movement, 123

Swain, Dr. Clara, 168

Swaraj, 159, 173

Syria, 39

Tahiti, 141, 259

Tai-p'ing Rebellion, 188

Tarsus, 37

Task of Christianity, 47

Tatary, 85 f.

Tatian, 49

Taylor, J. Hudson, 143, 189

Taylor, Bishop William, 244, 249

Telugu, 170, 174

Tertullian, 49

Theme of Bible, 17

Thomas, John, 141

Thomas von Western, 106

Thompson, James, 269

Tibet, 88

Torres, 104

Training Schools, 51

Turks, 83

Ulfilas, 68

Underwood, H. G., 216
Union of Church and State, 56
Unity, 12, 13, 25, 43
Universalism, 20, 27, 39
"Universities' Mission," 252
Urdinaeta, 102

Verbeck, G. F., 204
Verbiest, 103
Vladimir, 70
Von Weltz, 110, 126 ff.

Waldensian Church in Uruguay, 272

West Indies, 108

Whipple, Bishop, and Indians, 295

Williams, John, 259 f.

Williams, Roger, 110

Williams, S. Wells, 191, 204

Williams College Band, 123

Wilson, John, 164

Witness, 15, 24, 32, 35, 37

World War, 150, 154

Xavier, Francis, 99, 104

Yates, M. T., 189

Y. M. C. A., 170, 196, 215, 216

Zeisberger, David, 114
Zenana Mission, 168
Ziegenbalg, 108
Zinzendorf, 112
Zoroaster, 10
Zwemer, S. M., 228

Printed in the United States of America

'320

INDEX

Prussia, 81
Psalms, 15

Quadratus, 49

Race, 9, 11, 12, 15, 17, 19
Race Domination, 301
Rangoon, 165
Rebmann, 237
Regeneration, 11
Religion, 12, 13, 14, 27
Resurrection, 31
Revivals, 121
Ricci, 102
Rice, Luther, 146
Richards, Timothy, 180
Riggs, Elias, 226
Riu Kiu Islands, 213
Robert de Nobili, 100
Rome, 25, 26, 37, 41
Ross, James, 216
Russia, 70 '

Russian Orthodox Church, 97, 197, 207,
231, 296

Saint Thomas Christians, 65, 161

Saker, Alfred, 247

Salvation Army, 144, 214

Sara via, 125

Sargeants, John, Sr. and Jr., Ill

Scandinavian countries, 75

Schall, 103

Schwartz, C. F., 108, 160 -

Schweitzer, Alfred, 247

Science of Missions, 309

Scotland, 71

Scudder, John, 167

Selwyn, Bishop, 259, 262

Septuagint, 22

Severinus, 69

Slessor, Mary, 247

South America, progress in, 267 S.

Spain, 10, 37, 73, 80

Stanley, H. M., 237, 248, 250, 307

Staughton, Wm., 145

Stewardship, 24

"Stewart of Lovedale," 251

Straits Settlements, 185

Student Volunteer Movement, 123

Swain, Dr. Clara, 168

Swaraj, 159, 173

Syria, 39

Tahiti, 141, 259

Tai-p'ing Rebellion, 188

Tarsus, 37

Task of Christianity, 47

Tatary, 85 f.

Tatian, 49

Taylor, J. Hudson, 143, 189

Taylor, Bishop William, 244, 249

Telugu, 170, 174

Tertullian, 49

Theme of Bible, 17

Thomas, John, 141

Thomas von Western, 106

Thompson, James, 269

Tibet, 88

Torres, 104

Training Schools, 51

Turks, 83

Ulfilas, 68

Underwood, H. G., 216
Union of Church and State, 56
Unity, 12, 13, 25, 43
Universalism, 20, 27, 39
"Universities' Mission," 252
Urdinseta, 102

Verbeck, G. F., 204
Verbiest, 103
Vladimir, 70
Von Weltz, 110, 126 ff.

Waldensian Church in Uruguay, 272

West Indies, 108

Whipple, Bishop, and Indians, 295

Williams, John, 259 f.

Williams, Roger, 110

Williams, S. Wells, 191, 204

Williams College Band, 123

Wilson, John, 164

Witness, 15, 24, 32, 35, 37

World War, 150, 154

Xavier, Francis, 99, 104

Yates, M. T., 189

Y. M. C. A., 170, 196, 215, 216

Zeisberger, David, 114
Zenana Mission, 168
Ziegenbalg, 108
Zinzendorf, 112
Zoroaster, 10
Zwemer, S. M., 228

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